THE healthcare system in Cyprus “is totally outdated and is not improving”, a top doctor warned yesterday.
Marinos Soteriou, co-founder and director of the American Heart Institute in Nicosia said, “expenditure on healthcare on the island is way below the expenditure seen in northern European countries.”
The Institute, founded in 1999, as an initiative to offer health services in accordance with US guidelines, is a successful case of state privatisation of services. Soteriou said the success could be transferred to other centres.
“Most definitely, but the government must make the political decision to buy services from the private sector as this will decongest the sector and benefit patients by creating a healthy, competitive environment. In Cyprus, we are seeing a public versus private sector conflict all the time.”
Soteriou added, “currently, there is very little attention to quality and there is no incentive, despite a lot of good will. A lot of money is wasted due to the inefficient system. For example, in the public sector, the average pre-operative waiting time is 27 days.”
But he said that the problems experienced in the public sector were nothing new, “so why is all this fuss surfacing now?”
He was responding to allegations made by the head of the government doctors’ union, Stavros Stavrou, who said that the sector “has been downgraded, sold and is in danger of collapse.”
He criticised the ruling authorities for effectively shelving the National Health Scheme (NHS).
“The old Nicosia Hospital is ready to fall down, while the new one is poorly planned and behind schedule.”
Stavrou also accused the government of privatising cancer care, while at the same time, poaching private staff by higher wages in the public sector.
Soteriou went on to say that “as far as privatisation goes, I see over and over again efforts to present private sector physicians in a negative way, while they are accused of being all about the money. But in fact, the majority of public sector employees prefer private services and this is a sign of quality recognition.”
He said the NHS as proposed needed to undergo changes, while “serious, political decisions must be taken before it can be implemented. The scheme has been tried out in other countries and doesn’t seem to work, so why should we introduce it here?”
Andreas Demetriades, General Manager of the Health Institute Organisation in charge of implementing the NHS, admitted “that a lot of things still need to be done and that’s why we’ve decided to bring in a specialist consultant to help us implement our strategy. I cannot give a specific timeframe, but I think that it will be at least three years and it will eventually solve a lot of problems that we’re currently facing. We’re trying our best with the resources available to us.”
Frixos Savvides, Health Minister between 1999 and 2003 said, “Stavrou often exaggerates the situation to get people’s attention, but on the fundamental issues, he does have a point.”
He went on to say that “the idea for the NHS was first discussed around 30 years ago and a lot of governments tried to establish it. But there were always political obstacles.”
On the island, 25 per cent of public medical employees treat 80 per cent of the population.
“In 2001, I enacted the law on which the new health system will be built and it has three fundamental points. Firstly, everybody, including employers, employees and the government must pay something towards the NHS and this is income-related.
“Secondly, the system will work on a family doctor referral system – a GP as it is know in the UK.
“Thirdly, the patient will have the right, for the first time, to choose his own doctor and clinic.”
Savvides admitted there had been problems at the Ministry. “Obviously, there was a lack of proper facilities and I found that the Ministry of Health had the mentality that the only reason for their existence was to take care of public health in public hospitals. The proposed NHS is a very difficult task to undertake as you have to change the public sector way of thinking, which has been going on for decades.”
