THE NEW Nicosia General Hospital will be operational by the end of next year, or at the very latest at the beginning of 2005, Health Minister Dina Akkelidou said yesterday.
However, the assurance is unlikely to reassure sceptics, as the hospital has faced repeated delays and price increases since construction began seven years ago.
Construction of the new hospital started in 1996, and was last due to be complete by
July 2004. It had initially been scheduled for completion in February last year, but the deadline was extended to June this year after the contractor requested a further extension and more money. Then in September last year, following further negotiations with the contractor, the previous government agreed a new deadline of July 2004. Now, the new government has pushed back the deadline to late 2004, early 2005.
Akkelidou said the Electricity Authority would complete the installation of necessary equipment, computerisation and control checks by July next year.
Following a visit to the general hospital yesterday, she said the project’s completion was a daily concern and one in which she was directly involved, as it needed considerable co-ordination and close scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Akkelidou admitted local hospitals faced a vast number of problems and that it was the Ministry’s goal to solve them as soon as possible. Giving the public health sector the essential reorganisation it needed would do this, she said.
“This reorganisation will cover both the hospitals as well as the Health Ministry itself,” she said, and would involve the “decentralisation, precise governing, management and staffing of hospitals with the intent of supplying the public with the best medical care as soon as possible”.
She added that through her numerous visits to hospitals around the island, she had come to realise that a number of problems could be solved directly, giving immediate relief to thousands of patients. One such example Akkelidou gave was the decision not to force pensioners over the age of 65 to renew their medical card. This social group benefits from using a category ‘A’ medical card, which certifies free medical care.
Steps were also being made to help support primary care doctors, in an effort to allow them to practice medicine efficiently and properly, thus giving patients appropriate care and attention. This comes after reports that some state doctors are being forced to examine 100 patients a day.
