WITH bloodbaths on the island’s roads practically a daily phenomenon, Health Minister Andreas Gavrielides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that plans to improve and centralise the ambulance system are in the making, although he could not offer any specifics about what these changes were or when they might take effect.
He could not confirm plans for the establishment of six ambulance stations throughout Cyprus as reported in yesterday’s Phileleftheros, stating that what he had told the newspaper was “only what we are thinking about”, then adding that the number of potential new ambulance stations was either three or six.
“What I can say, however”, asserted Gavrielides, “is that in the last two years we have bought 28 new ambulances.”
The Health Minister said that discussions about upgrading the ambulance system were currently underway and that he would have a concrete plan to present at the 2006 budget meeting. “The ideas are in place but it is a question of planning.”
Three of the hypothetical six new ambulance stations would be in Nicosia – one in the centre, one in Lakatamia, and one in Kaimakli. There would also be one in the Limassol centre, one in the Larnaca district and one in the Paphos district.
There are also plans to replace the drivers with paramedics who will have to undergo 18 months of training. Having paramedics on board would help prevent many deaths, since one cannot currently receive any serious medical attention en route to the hospital. Several studies by the Health Ministry demonstrate that dozens of deaths occur every year in Cyprus due to the poor ambulance service. The paramedic plan has been on the drawing board for more than a decade.
If that is not reason enough to upgrade the ambulance, there is also the fact that the new Nicosia General Hospital is scheduled to open in February 2006. A few bumps are anticipated in the transition from the old hospital to the new hospital, and the ambulance procedure is one of them. If no tangible steps are taken to upgrade the ambulance system, the bumps in that transition will likely lead to bruises.
This is not the first time that such a proposal has been put forth. After a World Health Organisation report criticised the Cypriot Ambulance System in 1994, Ambulance Chief Andreas Kouppis submitted a plan to create a paramedic service. The plan died at the desk of the Finance Ministry’s Planning Bureau.
Over the following years, repeated plans were put forth. These plans always looked remarkably similar because they would keep languishing into extinction on an official’s desk and then come back to life the next year.
