CANCER care campaigners yesterday threatened to go on hunger strike if the government went ahead with its decision to close down Nicosia General Hospital’s oncology centre.
Armed with more documents slamming Health Minister Dina Akkelidou and the Health Ministry, the Committee of Cancer Patients and Relatives of the Oncology Centre at Nicosia General Hospital called a news conference on the morning of their 13th day of an indefinite protest outside the Presidential Palace.
Speaking to reporters, committee representative Christos Andreou said the Health Ministry had deliberately tried to dismantle the oncology centre and destroyed the radiology equipment.
Andreou said if nothing was done to reverse the government’s decision to shut down the capital’s cancer centre when President Tassos Papadopoulos returned from his current visit to New York, the committee would step up measures and start a hunger strike.
He pointed out that during the past two weeks no government official had passed by to see them.
“Today, we are presenting eight documents which show the Health Ministry deliberately tried to dissolve the Nicosia hospital oncology centre, purposely destroyed the radiology equipment with the ulterior motive of terminating the oncology centre’s operation and with its dissolution, forcing us all to use the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) Oncology Centre,” said Andreou.
He stressed that the patients did not have any complaints against the BoC doctors, but that the “system” was at fault, which “forces the state to dissolve its own oncology centre, so that we all have to use the BoC facility”.
Andreou said the committee wanted an oncology unit in Limassol, and eventually all towns, and said its insistence to continue operating the Nicosia centre was not aimed at deterring government plans to create an oncology unit in Limassol.
Akkelidou has said that with the closing of the Nicosia oncology centre, a complete oncology centre would be opened at Limassol hospital, while the BoC oncology centre would provide any necessary additional services. Meanwhile an outpatient clinic and day care treatment would be offered at the new Nicosia Hospital when it opens next year.
But Andreou pointed out that oncology departments existed in hospitals all over the world and “the only one in Europe that won’t have one, after the dissolution the state is planning, will be Nicosia General Hospital”.
As far as allegations concerning the Ministry’s deliberate attempts to destroy the oncology centre’s radiology equipment, Andreou said the committee had come across documents which referred to recent meetings between Ministry officials that stated the equipment had to be repaired immediately. Several days later, a second document called on the matter to be reviewed.
“Suddenly those machines were deemed useless and there was no cobalt source to repair the machine, despite the fact that we know the source and spare parts were found,” said Andreou.
The committee representative reiterated his belief that Akkelidou was misleading the public and “acted clueless” when called on to explain why one minute she gave her word that if the spare parts were found to repair the radiology equipment it would be brought over immediately and the next she took it back.
But, Akkelidou yesterday hit back against the allegations against her and said: “I do not accept the claim that I’m lying from anyone.”
She said the whole matter concerning the oncology centre created confusion and said she would not waste time over “who is telling shameless lies, or who is paranoid and who is misinforming”.
Akkelidou said the necessary files documenting the broken radiology equipment were at the Health Ministry and reiterated the Ministry’s plans to go ahead with creating a radiology unit at Limassol hospital. She said as soon as the tenders had been completed to build the radiology unit, procedures to purchase the equipment would begin.
The minister expressed her sadness over the fact that cancer patients and relatives were outside the Presidential Palace demonstrating and said she too had lost three close relatives to cancer, including her mother.
“They have said much about heartlessness, but we can’t create (something) based on emotion,” she said.
