EXASPERATED cancer patients and relatives yesterday dismissed the state cancer services in Cyprus as a travesty and warned they would take their case to the EU if necessary.
They are at the end of their tether over what they claim is a deliberate strategy by the government to downgrade – and ultimately wipe out – the provision of cancer health care at state hospitals.
According to them, the Health Ministry’s refusal to provide them with a state oncology centre hides an ulterior motive – to create a monopoly for the services of the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) Oncology Centre.
Right now, the BoC facility is the only viable choice, but even that is not a comprehensive treatment centre because it lacks urologists and pathologists – meaning that patients are forced to shuttle to and fro between the BoC and state hospitals.
Although the BoC centre is privately-run, its operating costs – including salaries – are paid by the government.
In short, claims Christos Andreou of the Committee of Cancer Patients and Relatives, there is no centralised cancer care system on the island.
It was hoped that the move to the new Nicosia general hospital would herald the arrival of a state-of-the-art, fully equipped oncology department that would at long last put an end to the inconveniencing of thousands of Cypriot cancer patients.
These hopes were dashed recently when Health Minister Andreas Gavrielides denied ever giving assurances that the new general hospital would accommodate either an Oncology or a Radiotherapy ward.
Yet Andreou yesterday openly accused Gavrielides of being economical with the truth. He showed the Mail a copy of a letter from the Health Ministry’s permanent secretary. The letter, addressed to Andreou in response to a previous enquiry, read:
“It has been decided that the oncology department, in its present form, should continue at the new hospital.”
The letter is dated November 11, 2005.
It turns out the new hospital at Latsia has a hospice for the terminally ill, an outpatient ward and a chemotherapy unit, but no radiotherapy – an essential part of the treatment, without which everything else is redundant.
In protest, Andreou has been camped out at Nicosia’s Eleftheria Square for six days. By yesterday he had gathered over 1,000 signatures on a petition asking for the immediate upgrading of state cancer services.
According to Andreou, under orders from above in 2003 the Radiotherapy Department at the old general hospital stopped purchasing cobalt, an element used for cancer therapy. This, he maintains, was done so authorities could then claim the machinery was faulty.
In the meantime, he says, the staff at the department remained largely idle, with the excuse being that the radiotherapy equipment was defective. However, the ministry continued to pay the staff’s salaries, while refusing to fix the equipment for what was a negligible amount.
Back in April, Andreou received from the ministry a letter referring to the transfer of a radiotherapist to a different department, irrelevant to her expertise.
Andreou had asked the ministry to explain why the radiotherapist had been transferred, hinting that the purpose was to close down the radiotherapy department.
In its response, the ministry admitted that the radiotherapist had been reassigned as a “security health officer”, but offered this explanation: the woman was transferred because she could no longer be useful in her past position.
“It defies belief,” says Andreou.
“They deliberately keep these persons out of work, and then they justify transferring them by saying they are no longer doing any good.”
In fact, the woman was transferred on the day after a senior oncologist at the general hospital recommended to Gavrielides the setting up a comprehensive oncology department in the basement of the new general hospital.
The basement was initially to serve as a military hospital, but the idea was later scrapped, leaving the space available for other uses. The premises were discovered by Andreou himself.
In his recommendation to the Health Ministry, dated May 15, the oncologist said the basement was “ideal” as an oncology department.
But on the very next day the radiotherapist was reassigned, bringing the number of qualified experts down to two.
To Andreou, this smacked of Machiavellian tactics.
“It’s a con, that’s what it is,” he told the Mail.
“Before, they [the government] used to say there are no suitable premises at state hospitals. Now, when the premises have been found, they’ve changed their tune and say that there is not enough personnel to sustain an oncology department. But they’re the ones who slashed the personnel in the first place.”
Moreover, says Andreou, when in January he enlisted the help of Greens deputy George Perdikis, both were denied a request to visit the premises.
The Ministry eventually backed down when Perdikis threatened to bring camera crews with him at the site.
Health Minister Gavrielides yesterday denied knowledge of any recommendation to transform the new hospital’s basement into an oncology unit.
“The configuration of the hospital has already been laid out, and I think Mr Andreou should leave these things to the experts,” he said.
“We have tried to explain to Mr Andreou that linear accelerators and cobalt treatment are outdated. But he is obsessed with his ideas.”
For his part, Andreou showed the Mail official documents, dating to 2003, stating that the government would not buy services from the Bank of Cyprus “ad infinitum”. The document cited a 1998 decision by the Cabinet to renegotiate the provision of cancer care services from the private sector.
However, he says, nothing of the sort has happened.
“Contrary to its stated policy, the government has not invited tenders for cancer services. Why? Because doing that would have involved offers from private clinics, and that would have jeopardised the BoC’s monopoly.”
He then produced another document – a draft of an updated agreement between the BoC and the government, which he secured with a court order.
One of its paragraphs is entitled “Confidentiality”. In legal jargon, it says that “the contracting parties are forbidden to divulge information to third parties about the contents of this agreement.”
“This is incredible,” says Andreou.
“This is a contract signed by the state with a private company. It belongs to the public domain. How on earth can it be deemed confidential?”
He shrugged:
“If you’re a cancer patient, and your only choice is the BoC, where will you go? Take a guess.”
