Hospital changes to help transplant patients

By Evie Andreou

A six-month agreement with nephrologist Dr Vasilis Hadjianastasiou was signed by the health ministry on Tuesday as a temporary solution to serve the patients of the Nicosia hospital’s transplant clinic.

The ministry also announced that the new head of the transplant clinic is Dr Michalis Zavros.

The clinic was left without any transplant experts in December after Hadjianastasiou who was the head of the transplant clinic, and another doctor, a kidney expert, walked out due to financial and other differences with the ministry.

The ministry then signed an agreement with a team of Greek doctors that were to travel to the island whenever needed to perform surgeries, a solution which dismayed transplant patients since they felt that it endangered their lives as the doctors would not be able to attend them in case of complications.

The government has bought Hadjianastasiou’s services as a kidney transplant expert after negotiations, the announcement said.

Health minister Philippos Patsalis had said that the goal was a permanent transplant centre at the Nicosia hospital, for which procedures have already started.

“The goal of the health ministry through this arrangement is the constant coverage of programmed kidney transplants and the non-stop observation of transplanted patients,” an announcement said.

The transplant clinic at the Nicosia hospital replaced in 2011 the Paraskevaidion transplant centre which was closed down after 24 years of operation after the government cut off its €2m annual grant.

 

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