HEALTH Minister Dina Akkelidou said this week the Cabinet had approved a bill separating the field of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery from the government dental services. Instead, surgeons specialised in this form of surgery will come under the medical services, she told the House Health Committee.
The move, which will be implemented as soon as the House of Representatives approves the proposal, was applauded by oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr Giorgos Pandelas.
Oral and maxillofacial surgeons are doubly qualified in Medicine and Dentistry, with specialist training and experience, which gives a greater understanding of the anatomy and pathology of conditions affecting the face, mouth, jaws and the rest of face and skull.
Until now they have come under the dental services, Akkelidou said. This was because oral and maxillofacial surgeons had been associated with oral surgery, which was different.
Oral surgery deals with all conditions affecting teeth, gum and their supporting alveolar bone, which is outside the scope of dental surgery. However, it was in no way connected to maxillofacial surgery, she said. “Therefore we want them to be dealt with differently, as is done in other European countries,” she said.
“This will solve a lot of our problems and help in running the clinic, because of the way the medical services operate,” said Pandelas.
But problems arose during Thursday’s meeting when deputies suggested strengthening a second oral and maxillofacial clinic in Limassol.
AKEL deputy Kikis Yiangou said: “The clinic in Limassol only has two beds for in-patients and only one doctor to cover the Limassol and Paphos districts. And this same doctor has to be on call in Nicosia 15 times a month, as well as bring patients to the capital when he is off duty.”
Pandelas says he has been trying to set up a fully operational and effective oral and maxillofacial clinic that deals with both in-patients and out-patients and which is located within Nicosia’s general hospital, for the past 11 years.
At present he is the only permanent public doctor specialised in this field. However, hiring more doctors was a problem, because there were no available ones specialised in this type of surgery for the government to hire.
“We don’t have the doctors to staff the clinic in Nicosia and they want to open another one in Limassol? It’s logical to staff the Nicosia clinic first and if in future there are more available doctors and greater patient demand with a long surgery waiting list, then we should discuss creating other clinics,” he told the Cyprus Mail. Nonetheless, he pointed out that in other European countries these types of clinics were three to four hours apart and that the island’s size did not warrant more clinics.
Pandelas also warned that creating small clinics in hospitals around the island would mean fewer patients were seen and by less experienced doctors because of the lack of cases to review.
