The Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn has threatened to remove immigrants and their children from hospitals and kindergartens.

Ilias Panagiotaros, Golden Dawn MP, said that if his party enters parliament after the crucial general election on 17 June, it will "carry out raids on hospitals and kindergartens and it will throw immigrants and their children out on the street so that Greeks can take their place".

Hospitals are running short of medical supplies and beds. In some public hospitals, doctors have stopped non-essential surgical interventions because of shortage of gloves, syringes and gauze.

"The situation is really critical and getting worse every day," Dr Panaghiotis Papanikolaou, a neurosurgeon, told The Guardian. "There is not enough medical staff to cope and huge shortages of supplies. There's no money to even service scanners and surgical microscopes. We're talking about a major healthcare crisis - not in the making, it is happening now."

The election, which follows Greece's indecisive poll on 6 May in which golden Dawn won 7 percent of the vote and 21 parliamentary seats, is considered crucial for the country's future in the euro.

The party was in the headlines when its spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris, assaulted two woman MPs in a live TV broadcast. He slapped one and chucked water at another.

Kasidiaris sues

Kasidiaris then lodged a lawsuit against Rena Dourou of Syriza (the Coalition of the Radical Left) and Liana Kanelli of the Communist Party for unprovoked insults and against Antenna TV for illegal detention.

He argues he was provoked by insults during the television show and that Kanelli hit him first with a newspaper.

He has also sued a journalist at Antenna for "instigation to abuse of power" for allegedly provoking a prosecutor to order his arrest.

The party has put an embargo on its representatives speaking to the press.

Golden Dawn has appealed to growing nationalist sentiment after harsh austerity measures demanded by the European Union and the IMF helped plunge Greece into economic turmoil.

IMF European Union Congress