Six to cue cancer centre over claims of negligence

SIX PEOPLE have filed a class action against the Cyprus Republic and Bank of Cyprus (BoC) Oncology Centre for making their or their relatives’ health condition worse and causing death due to negligence.

The plaintiffs, three cancer patients and three relatives of patients who died from the disease, filed a suit requesting damages of €500,000 to €22 million, the former saying the BoC Centre was responsible for making their health deteriorate and the latter claiming the centre – and consequently the state – was responsible for their relatives’ deaths.

According to an announcement by Nicosia General Hospital’s Cancer Patients and Relatives Association (ELAZO – ‘I Hope, Fight And Live’) yesterday, a formal complaint is being prepared for the EU to report all that is going on in the cancer treatment sector of Cyprus.

The plaintiffs maintain that they or their relatives were not provided with the necessary therapy in time; something they say was taking place in the full knowledge of the state.

“Cancer patients are dying helpless and hassled, due to the monopoly of radiotherapy by the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre,” the announcement read.

It added that while the Supreme Court had issued a decision in June 2005 for the restoration and modernisation of the state Oncology Centre in Nicosia in order to accept more patients, nothing has been done about it.

“There is an available area in the basement of the new Nicosia General Hospital for the creation of a Radiotherapy Department at a cost of only €5 million, however they are pleading ignorance,” said the Association.

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.