Greece is on the brink of a severe healthcare crisis with shortages of medicines being exacerbated by panic among patients unable to access cancer or cardiac drugs, pharmacists have warned.

The insolvent country's worsening liquidity has led to public insurers being unable to pay their bills and prescription drugs running dangerously low, say chemists. On Wednesday, the sector staged a one-day strike to highlight the "emergency situation".

"I give it 15 days. If the European Union doesn't release the loans it has promised by then, there will be scenes of utter chaos here," said Dimitris Karageorgiou, secretary general of the Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Association.

Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/23/greece-debt-creating-healthcare-crisis