It is instructive and terrifying to look at what has happened to private healthcare in Greece – particularly if you live in another of the PIIGS.

To meet the deficit targets, the Greek public sector which sub-contracts operations to the private Greek hospitals has stopped paying operators. They say that they have hit a blank wall. “The public sector is now paying one, two, three, even five, years out,” said one source. They say that the public sector is not paying in order to meet the EU-set deficit targets.

Meanwhile, the private Greek individual has seen a catastrophic decline in living standards. Our sources, who include a stock market analyst specialising in healthcare and senior managers in large private groups, say that personal income levels have fallen 15-20pc since May. They expect more reductions in 2011 as further austerity measures hit. The fall, coupled to uncertainty about future falls, means that out of pocket payments has crashed. Some say demand has fallen 35%, others 20%. The Greek Minister of Health has stated that the public sector hospitals have seen a 20% increase in demand as patients switch from private to public.

That means the four big Greek hospital groups – Iaso, Hygeia, Athens Medical and Euromedica - can only rely on payments from private healthcare insurers. And here, too, there is growing anecdotal evidence that many consumers will let their policies lapse – starting with the new unemployed.

Meanwhile, customers found this summer that private healthcare, which was zero-rated, suddenly carried VAT at 11%. To keep sales, Hygeia took the brave decision to swallow the increase.

Of course, none of the four can raise money in the stock market. And all of them have had their lines of credit frozen and now face substantial cuts. Hygiea, backed by powerful Greek private equity group Marfin, is the only one which can claim to have a secure financial future. And even Hygiea says that over the next two years it is in “survival mode.”

Yet look back just 18 months and we were getting very different views from our Greek sources. Some said that private healthcare would not be cut, because of the queues in the public sector. Others said that, for cultural reasons, Greek families would continue to spend the price of a small car per birth on private maternity.

I am getting the same positive messages today from the big Portuguese groups.