A SERIOUS shortage of hospital supplies almost saw a cancellation of all operations at Nicosia General Hospital today.
Surgeons yesterday warned they wouldn’t be able to operate due to the lack of supplies, including stents – wire mesh tubes used during catheterisations – to carry out operations.
Health Minister Christos Patsalides averted the worse-case-scenario when he ordered the immediate purchase of stents and other materials.
“There is no way departments or clinics will close down due to the lack of supplies,” said Patsalides after a chairing a meeting on the issue. “Where there are problems and insufficiencies with supplies, the ministry’s position is that they should be replaced immediately. We will not endanger our patients’ lives,” he added.
The minister admitted that the problem was serious, but not new.
Public doctors blamed the problem on long bureaucratic procedures and called for a change in legislation in order to speed up proceedings for the purchase of supplies.
Government Doctors’ union (PASYKI) president, Stavros Stavrou, yesterday said doctors had for years been asking for a change in procedures to buy basic supplies, but there was never a response.
He pointed out that while current legislation included a provision for speeding up procedures, nobody was using it.
He said everyone was hiding behind legislation, while he also hinted at personal interests, with the unavoidable referral of patients to the private sector.
“The minister may be determined, but the essence of the matter is that the basic supplies for heart surgery, but also other therapies, are not at the disposal of doctors, resulting in an unacceptable situation when it comes to supplying patients with a service,” said Stavrou, adding: “Doctors are forced to take on the soul-destroying task of having to deal with continuous pressure by patients – and at the end of the day, who else will they speak to?”
He added that ways needed to be found to change the procedures needed to buy supplies. “This is something we have been saying for years, which is recognised by the services and the law itself, which gives them the possibility of using much faster procedures, but they won’t move forward. They keep hiding behind a word or paragraph of the law.”
He added, “At the end of the day, some are heard saying that we will buy services. Here we don’t have the basic materials, but they can go and pay €10,000 to €12,000 to send the patients elsewhere. This is what they are after; to destroy our services by using bureaucracy.”
The Health Minister insisted things weren’t as simple as that.
“Things aren’t that simple,” said Patsalides. “It’s not like a supermarket where you will order supplies and they will come. Here there are procedures, which are provided by law, and we are speaking about the management of public money.”
He said there were specific procedures that needed to be followed, not just according to national laws but also European ones.
“I am already in contact with the state auditor to offer money as an emergency to cover the existing needs. The aim is for no surgery to be cancelled,” the minister said.
Patsalides later announced that a conference would be held tomorrow, with the participation of the Auditor-general, Attorney-general and Accountant-general, in order to re-examine the tenders opened for the state hospitals’ supplies.
He said the system should become more flexible, but at the same time, the necessary safeguards need to be put in place, in order to avoid the health sector becoming subject to financial benefits.
“The tenders are worth many millions of euros and for this reason we need to be especially careful,” Patsalides explained.
