THE MINISTRY of Health has introduced new hospital rules at three clinics in the Nicosia General Hospital as part of a pilot program aimed at upgrading health services, Minister Christos Patsalides announced yesterday.
The new rules called ‘clinical protocols’ involve reorganising public hospitals, and implementing better management methods.
The pilot programme will be monitored at all stages in order to assess potential difficulties and implementation problems, at which point final improvements will be incorporated, said Patsalides.
“Rules can be instituted through these clinical protocols because the health sector needs rules, and along with some other steps that we will publicise soon, we will go forward, building a foundation for a new attitude toward the necessary reorganisation of health services, ensuring the provision of high-quality health services for the Cypriot citizen,” said Patsalides.
The three clinics in which the protocols have initially been implemented in Nicosia General Hospital are the cardiology, pulmonary and orthopaedics clinics for common conditions such as angiography, pneumonia and fractures.
“Despite the very early stage of implementation, the first results of the pilot are encouraging,” said Patsalides, with the patient satisfaction rate for coronary angiography being 96 percent, he added.
“Furthermore, there are preliminary indications that the length of stay [in hospital] is reduced for patients with pneumonia where the protocol was implemented, in line with the experience of similar cases abroad,” Patsalides said.
Two additional protocols, one covering acute coronary syndrome in the cardiology department and the other covering pulmonary embolism in the medicine department are currently being developed.
“The development of the new protocols will be continued and intensified to cover over 50 per cent of incidents in NGH and other public hospitals in Cyprus by 2012, in cooperation and coordination with the respective executive directors and clinical directors,” he said.
Several more protocols are planned for development in the future as well, said Patsalides, in order to “integrate into clinical protocols a greater proportion of patients, based on best international practice.”
The protocol programme is being overseen by doctors and nurses who have been educated about and involved in the development and proper implementation of the protocols, in conjunction with the Ministry’s advisors, added Patsalides.
