THE FOUR beds and four nurses previously removed on order of the Health Minister have now returned to duty at the Oncology Ward of the Nicosia General Hospital, following a Supreme Court ruling against the state.
The Supreme Court ruled in favour of cancer patients this week, overturning the government’s decision to downsize the state oncology ward and remove four beds and nurses from the ward.
The top court ordered the return of the ward to its original capacity with 18 beds and full nursing capacity. The state was also ordered to pay the legal costs of the case.
Head of the Committee of Cancer Patients and Relatives of the Oncology Ward at Nicosia General Hospital, Christos Andreou, said yesterday the next step was to prepare a legal case to re-open the radiotherapy unit at the hospital.
The unit broke down three years ago. Although an initial report said the machinery could be fixed, a later one concluded that a replacement could not be found.
Andreou has long campaigned against what he describes as a conspiracy to dissolve the oncology ward at the hospital, starting with the radiotherapy unit. He argues the state made an agreement with the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) Oncology Centre not to provide duplicate cancer services in the public sector so that the BoC could sell its services to the state.
The new Nicosia hospital still under construction on the outskirts of the city does not include an oncology unit within its structures. The Health Ministry intends to expand the oncology unit at Limassol General Hospital but this could take up to three years.
Andreou told the Cyprus Mail that the committee would fight to re-open the radiotherapy unit at the old Nicosia hospital so the state could provide a comprehensive oncology unit with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy services.
Head of the oncology unit at the hospital, Dr Antonis Rossides, told the paper last month that the hospital had to ferry four patients a day with ambulance and nurse to receive radiotherapy at the BoC Centre.
Rossides argued that the money spent ferrying patients from the hospital to the BoC Centre for radiotherapy treatment justified purchasing new machinery.
“We have four patients that need radiotherapy treatment. They don’t accept them at the BoC Centre so we have to send them every day from here to get treatment with separate ambulances and nurses.
“It’s a five-week therapy, we send three ambulances a day. The cost of this surely warrants fixing machines or buying a new one,” he said.
