TWO PRIVATE clinics are understood to have offered a Filipina housemaid free treatment after her employer reportedly refused to cover the cost of a cancer operation.
One of the doctors who made the offer, Sotos Demetriou, told the Cyprus Mail that his clinic would be willing to perform the operation and offer post-operative care “with great pleasure”.
“I gave the offer without a cent, as a doctor and a human being,” he added.
Contracts for domestic workers stipulate that employers must pay for all necessary medical expenses incurred during the maid’s period of employment.
According to the Immigrant Support Action Group (ISAG), which set up a fundraising initiative to raise money for the woman’s operation, the employer refused to meet the cost of the operation at the Makarios Hospital in Nicosia.
Doctors at the hospital were willing to operate on her yesterday, if funds were forthcoming.
But last night, Demetriou had received no reply from the woman regarding his offer.
The Philippines Consul, Yiannakis Erotokritou is thought to be handling the case, after reportedly arranging a meeting with her, her employer and immigration officials yesterday morning.
He was unavailable for comment last night. The ISAG yesterday welcomed the offers from the two clinics, and urged the woman to accept one of them.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
