No word on missing radiotherapy machine

A CANCER treatment machine meant for the oncology department of the new general hospital remains “missing”, the Green Party said yesterday.
“The machine is considered still missing as its destruction has still not been recorded,” said the Cyprus Green Party MP George Perdikis.
The radiotherapy machine, worth 300,000 euros, went missing from the old general hospital last December, where it was being stored before it was meant to be transferred to the oncology department of the new general hospital, which was not yet complete. Perdikis added that since then there has been no formal investigation into what happened to the machine.
Health Minister Christos Patsalides has said that the machine was most likely destroyed during the demolition of the old hospital.
Perdikis said the minister claimed he would hand over the investigation to the police last December, which he never did, and then said that a new machine would be ordered for the oncology department. So far, neither promise has been put into action, the MP said.
“Up till now no steps have been made to investigate the issue,” said Perdikis. However, he stated that even worse than this, is the fact that the state has ignored the need to provide a radiotherapy machine for the new general hospital. Perdikis claimed there is a branch of the Health Ministry which is trying to sabotage the creation and operation of a state oncology department.
“The oncology department in the new general hospital is so far incomplete and cancer patients are not able to receive the necessary treatment,” said Christos Andreou, head of the Cancer Patients and Relatives Union (ELAZO). Andreou also suggested that the statistics of new cancer patients given out by the state must be wrong since they are not able to treat them at the new general hospital.
Andreou said he intends to make a formal complaint to the police for the “theft” of the machine.
Perdikis has also compiled a 100-page file of all of the documents regarding the issue since December of 2009 which he plans to present to the president of parliament, parties, the cabinet, the attorney general, the auditor general and the media.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.