Cancer patients lash out at minister over specialist ward

CANCER patients yesterday branded Health Minister Dina Akkelidou a criminal, claiming she was refusing to authorise the repair of treatment equipment in order to shut down the Nicosia General Hospital’s Oncology Department.

During a protest outside the House or Representatives yesterday morning, cancer patients accused Akkelidou of looking after some people’s interests, and claimed they had proof that the hospital equipment could be repaired.

“Mrs Akkelidou has said that we were pawns used by doctors, but we are fighting for our lives, for hope that we can save ourselves and other patients, and to stop the shutting down of the Oncology Department in Nicosia,” Christos Andreou, a member of the co-ordinating committee for cancer patients, said.

“Mrs Akkelidou should finally sort out her own housekeeping
and stop loading her sins and responsibilities on others, to justify her intentions to undermine medical care for cancer patients,” he added.

“We wonder whose interests the minister is she trying to protect, since she refuses to support state medical treatment for cancer patients,” Christou said.

“We have proof that the oncology department’s ATC/9 machine can be repaired at a cost of £1,800, and according to a tender by another company, a source of cobalt could be imported at a cost of £50,000.

“The Minister has these documents, but she insists and misleads by saying that the equipment cannot be repaired and that they cannot import cobalt.”

The patients are furious at the government’s insistence on shutting the Nicosia cancer ward and forcing patients to visit the Limassol centre.

“How can you have an oncology centre with only one doctor?” Christou asked.
“And if they need three years to import the machinery, why then are they shutting down the Nicosia ward before the other centre is ready?”

Akkelidou was yesterday unavailable for comment.

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.