Greek pharmacists went on indefinite strike in protest at a deal between the government and troika bailout lenders to deregulate store licences.

Panhellenic Pharmacies Association leader Kyriakos Theodosiadis warned that the government was conspiring with its EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) creditors to sweep away long-standing licensing controls to allow the creation of pharmacy chains and outlets in supermarkets.

He said that the government had reneged on assurances made to the association and that it would shut the country's thousands of pharmacies in protest.

The government is expected to submit legislation on major market reforms by the end of the week.

"The provisions in the forthcoming Bill are totally beyond any common sense," Mr Theodosiadis said.

"They will destroy Greek pharmacies, public health and Greek society itself.

"Let those politicians who support this Bill hand out medicine to the public."

Bailout lenders reached the deal with the government last week. They agreed to restart delayed loan payouts in return for new measures that shift focus from public spending cuts to overhauling market rules, which the troika's debt inspectors claim are overprotective.

Pharmacists argue that current licensing rules ensure that residents in remote parts of the country, including villages and islands, have ample access to medicines.

City-dwellers are also well-served by a system that keeps drug dispensaries open overnight in every neighbourhood.

But free-market ideologues in the troika - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF - maintain pharmacists have been coddled with protective licensing limits and generous minimum profit margins that restrict competition.

Pharmacists' representatives counter that the health minister must intervene to "prevent the destruction of social policy and public health and to block the entry of pharmacies into supermarkets and chain stores."

At the moment, state arrears to pharmacists amount to €280 million (£233m).

The crisis has seen hundreds of thousands of Greeks lose their state-backed health insurance since most benefits expire after a year of unemployment.

Greece's main private-sector union GSEE says it will stage a 24-hour general strike on April 9 to protest against new labour reforms demanded by the troika.