By Charlie Charalambous
HEALTH Minister Christos Solomis has threatened legal action against Politisnewspaper for suggesting he jumped the queue for treatment at the expense of a wheelchair-bound patient.
The case is all the more sensitive as the patient in question happens to be a 32-year-old enclaved man, turning the issue into a political hot potato.
Yiannakis Prodromou, as is his right, made a request through his doctor to receive rehabilitation treatment abroad after a crippling fall from a tree.
But his request for specialised treatment in the United States was put on the back burner while, the paper claims, Solomis was last December sent abroad for a routine fluid-on-the knee operation, which could have been carried out in Cyprus.
Politis
claimed Solomis’ trip – which was confirmed last week by the government spokesman – cost the tax payer £3,677.
However, Solomis sent a letter to Politis(published yesterday), claiming its article was slanderous because he had already made it clear that his operation could not be done in Cyprus and that all the proper procedures were followed.
Prodromou fell from a carob tree two years ago and badly injured his spine, leaving him in a wheel chair.
Doctors at Nicosia General hospital and the paraplegic centre diagnosed his immobility as being permanent.
Nevertheless, a visiting American orthopaedic doctor from the Shreiners Hospital for Children said Prodromou could receive beneficial treatment in the USA – treatment which could free him of his wheel chair.
An application to go to the States was made in June 1998, but it is alleged Prodromou received no response from the ministry.
In his Politisletter, Solomis denies that the request was ignored and said the medical board judged that sending Prodromou to the Magee Rehabilitation Institute in Philadelphia would not appreciably improve his condition.
Solomis said the initial delay and confusion had been caused because the ministry first received the request by way of the Cyprus High Commission in Canberra, Australia, and had no idea where the patient was.
In reply, the paper says it has evidence to suggest the minister is presenting a misleading picture, as it has a copy of a letter sent to Solomis by Prodromou’s Cypriot doctor Michalis Hadjigavriel, five months before the embassy letter in November 1998.
Although Prodromou is now living in Kofinou, most of his family are still in occupied Karpasia and have no way of raising the £100,000 it would cost for the pioneering treatment in the USA.
The government spends over £8 million a year on sending patients abroad for treatment if the equivalent is not available in Cyprus.
