Cancer centre hits back at minister

THE CO-ORDINATING Committee of the Cancer Patients and Relatives of the Nicosia hospital’s Oncology Department yesterday lashed out at Health Minister Dina Akkelidou, for insisting that a new centre in Limassol would be better for the patients.

Akkelidou said that an Oncology Radiotherapy Centre was being set up in Limassol, “which will have services that are not offered at the old Nicosia hospital and will equal the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre with two linear accelerators”.

But the statement read that Akkelidou’s comments made it clear that the government aimed at shutting down the Nicosia centre in order to force patients to go to private doctors.

“Cyprus is a European country but it’s being turned into a third-world country, since we are the only country in the EU and perhaps in the world, where the state doesn’t offer full medical services to at the state hospital of the capital,” the statement read.

According to the statement, the Nicosia centre treats around 4,000 patients, out of which 1,250 are from Limassol and Paphos, while the rest are from the capital.

“Who will monitor these patients, since the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre say they are overrun by patients, and we have to book treatment after a few months, if we are still alive,” the statement read.

“What is the Minister afraid of, if she has nothing to hide then why doesn’t she refuses to get into a public dialogue with us, and why does she mislead public opinion with statistics?”

On Thursday 15 cancer patients protested against the closing down of the oncology ward at the Nicosia hospital as the Oncology Centre did not have the capacity to treat all the patients.

They claimed the state had turned their back on them saying that they may as well kill them as the waiting list was too long and some patients were not seen to.

However Akkelidou said that it was the best thing to close down the ward and that the possibility of a ward at the new hospital had not been ruled out.

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