President praises health unity

President Nicos Anastasiades thanked on Friday, all political parties in parliament for their help in introducing a national health scheme (NHS) to Cyprus after years of discussion.

Speaking from his home town, Limassol, where he attended the inauguration ceremony of the Mediterranean Hospital’s new heart centre, Anastasiades praised the political unity displayed by parties that, with a unanimous vote, passed legislation introducing the NHS and paving the way for state hospitals’ autonomy last year.

“Our vision for the health sector has been carefully designed so that it is comprehensive and beneficial to patients,” he said.

The president welcomed the new heart center from the private sector, adding that it was not only beneficial to patients in Cyprus but contributed to the greater goal of making the island a regional hub for medical services.

Anastasiades said the government had shown unprecedented cooperation with private hospitals to cover what the state was unable to offer citizens.

This has served to ‘drastically reduce waiting lists and upgrading our health services to our fellow citizens in need of treatment’, he added.

Other private hospitals offer excellent health services too, Anastasiades said, praising the private sector, which in cooperation with the state ‘really creates the conditions that, with the implementation of the NHS, every citizen can take advantage of.”

The NHS has been a major achievement for the health sector and every citizen in Cyprus ‘because providing the best possible health service is an unalienable right for all citizens and not a privilege’.

 

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.