00:00In Yanouli, just outside Larissa, in central Greece, a local health clinic helps patients get better access to health care.
00:11It's a place where you can see what you need.
00:15I think it's closer to doctors.
00:25Across the European Union, health care is meant to be a right, not a privilege.
00:29But for many, getting the care they need is still a struggle.
00:32In Greece, a new approach is helping bridge that divide.
00:45Vasiliki is a former caregiver and municipal employee.
00:49For years, she has been struggling with several health issues, including diabetes.
00:54I suffer many diseases, mainly in the night and put me in a coma.
01:00This is very difficult because the last five years I have been alone.
01:04Every night, I said, I will wake up in the morning.
01:07I live here for 19 years with the idea of death.
01:12I will wake up in the morning.
01:14At 48 and unemployed, Vasiliki has no private insurance and depends on public health care, which can be challenging.
01:21A year ago, she began visiting this local health unit in Yanouli.
01:26It's amazing.
01:27I'm here, I'm here, I feel free.
01:30I'm here and I feel comfortable.
01:31I'm here, I feel comfortable.
01:34But I'm here and I'm here.
01:36Across Greece, 127 local health units, known as TOMI, have been set up to bring healthcare closer to disadvantaged communities.
01:45Since 2019 this Sianouli unit has been treating around 100 patients a day, focusing on the poor, the uninsured, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses.
02:15Between 2017 and 2027, Tommy units are receiving 202.5 million euros from the European Social Fund Plus.
02:36This funding supports key health services for the entire community, including vaccination campaigns for undocumented migrants.
02:44Here in our office, working as a personal nurse, we don't only feel that we can help the patients with mental health issues.
02:56We are close to them, we are close to them, we are close to them, we are close to them, we are close to them, we are close to them.
03:06We are close to them, we are close to them, we are close to them as a family.
03:11We are open to talk to us about whatever issue they want and they need.
03:17And we are close to them to address whatever problem they are present.
03:22From 2021 to 2027, the EU and its member countries are spending 2.4 billion euros to help make healthcare and essential services accessible to all.
03:34A strategy welcomed by this Brussels-based expert on health inequality.
03:39Health inequalities means that health is very much related to social disadvantage.
03:46So many people still face obstacles to achieving good health and these obstacles are related to poverty, to social exclusion, to discrimination.
03:55And that then affects also how people are using services.
03:58We see that the commercialisation of healthcare risks widening health inequalities.
04:05And certainly, and that was also a nice report that was being published by the European Commission,
04:10that demonstrates that health insurance and coverage of healthcare expenditures is as important as, for example, unemployment benefits.
04:22So it's really very important for our social model to make sure that the access to health services is covered adequately for vulnerable people.
04:37Across Europe, the COVID pandemic has reinforced the idea that healthcare must be a top priority in the EU and that everyone deserves equal access.
04:46The healthcare approach here in central Greece is not just treating patients.
04:50It's giving people confidence, strengthening communities, and making society a little more equal.
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