Cyprus Mail 14 August 2019 - article by Lizzy Ioannidou
THE health insurance organisation (HIO) has invited Gesy doctors to submit expressions of interest to offer night-time and weekend services at outpatient clinics, for which they will be generously rewarded, it emerged on Tuesday.
Gesy-registered general practitioners and paediatricians have until September 6 to opt into the Gesy overtime service which is set to be launched to beneficiaries later next month.
The service, that will be provided beyond normal working hours, will be free of charge, while patients can visit on-duty doctors without a pre-arranged appointment.
Specifically, with the launch of the new service in September, a Gesy doctor will be available on weekdays from 7.30pm to 10pm, on Saturdays from 9am until 5pm, and on Sundays from 9am until 1pm.
The plan, which depends on the number of doctors that will apply from each district, aims to have two GPs and two pediatricians on duty in the Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca districts; two GPs and one pediatrician in Paphos; and one of each in Famagusta, Polis Chryochous and Troodos regions.
Doctors who opt-in will be well rewarded. Over and above their wages as Gesy doctors, overtime GP and pediatricians will be paid €40 per hour on weekdays, while weekend doctors will make €60 an hour, regardless of the number of patients they see.
As such, in one weekday overtime shift a doctor will make €100 (for 2.5 hours), €480 on Saturdays (eight-hour shift), and €240 for a four-hour Sunday shift.
