Reply to Gabriel Sakellaridis, regarding the incident at the General Hospital Rhodes was provided by the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis.
The Minister of Health maintained that the picture presented does not reflect the true extent of the incident.
Mr. Georgiadis stated that he immediately contacted the hospital administration, who informed him that the damage was caused by a rupture in a metal pipe approximately 30 years old in the mechanical room on the second floor.
According to hospital management, water seeped into the first floor and caused sections of the suspended ceiling in the hallway to collapse. However, as noted, the valves were shut off immediately, the problem was resolved quickly, and the area was cleaned up, with the hospital’s operations fully restored within about ten minutes.
The Minister of Health also noted that this particular hospital is facing chronic infrastructure deterioration, as he stated that no substantial repairs had been carried out for decades.
He emphasized, in fact, that upgrade projects are underway through the Recovery and Resilience Fund, while, on his own initiative, he has already launched a program to replace the pipeline network, as a large portion of it has suffered significant damage due to its age.
At the same time, Mr. Georgiadis launched an attack against Mr. Sakellaridis, accusing him of exploiting a technical problem for political confrontation. “Regarding a problem we are aware of and are already addressing, the ‘serious’ Mr. Sakellaridis seized the opportunity for a bit of populism,” he noted characteristically.
