Municipality of Athens - Health services for the homeless

The Municipality of Athens has opened a health clinic at KYADA, for the homeless and the poverty-stricken.

The purpose of the Center for Reception and Solidarity of the Municipality of Athens (KYADA) is to address the problems of vulnerable populations affected by poverty and experiencing exclusion and social isolation.

Through its structures, the Reception and Solidarity Center supports approximately 26,000 citizens each month.

The new clinic is located in a renovated space within the main building of KYADA (35 Pireos Street) and includes a drug prescription unit.

"The pandemic hits us all equally, but we are not all equal in dealing with it. That is why all four doctors and 14 nurses of our newly established Social Clinic are at the forefront of protecting all those in need. At 35 Piraeus Street, they provide free prescription drugs, primary care services, thermometry and rapid test to our homeless and needy fellow citizens," Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis said.

The clinic is equipped with all the necessary medical devices such as oxygen concentrator, cardiograph, defibrillator, nebulizers, otoscope, suction machines, oximeters, sphygmomanometers and glucose meters.

Furthermore, for the first time, the clinic provides KYADA beneficiaries with free prescriptions for medicine related to the medical services offered by the doctors available (pulmonologist, surgeon and psychiatrist).

“This will offer additional relief to people in need, at a time when Greece’s health system is significantly burdened by the pandemic,” the municipality said.

The new clinic is supported by the Panhellenic Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (which has made significant donations of medical equipment, consumables and office furniture), the Whiskey Forum (consumables, medical devices, examination beds) and the “Lions Club of Kifissia Anne Sullivan” (donated a three-channel electrocardiography device).

Formerly homeless Greek-Iranian woman, thankful to give back