Solomis admits there’s a long a way to go on Health Service

By Charlie Charalambous

HEALTH Minister Christos Solomis yesterday conceded that the government’s elusive National Health Scheme was no nearer reality now than it had been five years ago.

Responding to criticism from the Medical Association, Solomis said it was wrong to suggest that there was general agreement among all the social partners on how the system should be funded and organised.

The Association said it had agreed on all aspects of the system with previous minister Manolis Christofides, and implied Solomis was dragging his feet on the matter.

“The Association may have agreed on specific aspects concerning health care provision, but on serious issues such as funding there has been no exhaustive discussion by the social partners,” Solomis told a press conference yesterday.

The minister then revealed the sheer task facing the government in trying to implement free and comprehensive health care, which marries the private and public sector by introducing a referral system (based on the British General Practitioner model).

“Serious issues — like the funding of the scheme, which will cost between £180 and 200 million a year to operate, and the involvement of some 3,000 to 4,000 health care professionals — have not been broached.”

He added that such thorny issues were still in the process of being discussed in an effort to iron out problems which have delayed the introduction of the scheme.

Other sticking points include the percentage contribution of employees and subscribers alike, which previous administrations have failed to resolve.

And the minister pointed out that efforts to move away from the basic principles of the scheme only contributed to increasing its final cost.

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