Health Minister insists plenty of doctors to treat patients

THERE is no question of patients being turned away for treatment, the Health Ministry insisted yesterday, despite complaints from cancer patient groups.

Answering a recent report that a patient was turned away at the hospital and forced to fly to Israel to receive treatment, Health Minister Andreas Gavrielides told the Cyprus Mail that “after speaking to the relative authorities they have informed me that we had more than enough of doctors, nurses and medical staff over that weekend. There is no question that a person would be turned away for treatment.”

The patient, who was later diagnosed with cancer, succumbed to his illness last Friday.
But Christos Andreou, head of the Cancer Patients and Relatives of the Oncology Centre at Nicosia General Hospital, said yesterday he had personally seen cases when patients had been turned down for treatment at the Nicosia General Hospital. He added that only recently, the hospital made strenuous attempts not to accept an 89-year-old woman suffering from cancer.

“Although I am not aware of the unfortunate man who passed away recently, I am aware of an 89-year-old woman who transferred from Makarios Hospital in Nicosia to Nicosia General Hospital because discovered that she had cancer. However, when she got there the doctors told her that she wasn’t meant to be transferred there. After long a struggle we managed to get her a bed there but the whole ordeal was daunting.”

Andreou added his battle for the rights of cancer patients was continuing and that the matter was currently being taken up at the Supreme Court in Nicosia.

“We will be in court on Thursday morning because we are currently suing the Nicosia General Hospital. We initially asked them to give us all the relevant documents needed for the trial which they didn’t give to us so we will await to see what will happen in court.”

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.