Filenews 9 December 2020
The Minister of Health, Konstantinos Ioannou, made a written appeal to the parties for the adoption of the state budget.
Specific:
It is with particular concern that we have been following the public debate on the State Budget for 2021 in recent days. As the Ministry of Health, we are appalled at the possibility of not passing the Budget, in the midst of the reform of the health sector, which is under way with the management of the pandemic.
Undeniably, voting against the State Budget will not only affect the implementation of the Government's policies, but will jeopardise the actions of the Ministry of Health, which are the defence of Health, with direct effects on everyone's daily lives, with zero exceptions.
The Ministry of Health's Budget for 2021 represents 9.63% of the total State Budget, compared to 2020 when the percentage of the State Budget was 8.91%, while the total budgeted expenditure for the year 2021 amounts to €1.017 million. compared to €962 million in the same time as €962 million in the previous year. 2020. This is the largest budget in the history of the Republic of Cyprus.
The vote against the State Budget 2021, for the Ministry of Health, translates as:
- Non-payment of the State's contribution to the GHS (€425 million), which will thus lead to the collapse of the System and the deprivation by the citizens of the greatest conquest of Cypriot society.
- Non-payment of the grant to the OKY, which will therefore cause huge problems in the process of self-government and in the proper functioning of the Public Hospitals, the Ambulance Service, Primary Care of the OKY, services that have been called upon to take on the burden of pandemic management, while inactivation of specialized clinics and services provided only in the hospitals of the OKY.
- Cancellation of the payment of the salary costs of seconded staff to the CSO, i.e. doctors, nurses and other staff, who in the last 9 months have been on the front line with responsibility and professionalism and have lifted the burden of managing the medical aspect of the pandemic and whom we all thank for all this time.
- Failure to implement the strategy for managing the health crisis of the crown, since the non-adoption of the Budget will affect funds, including the provision of consumables for tests, the purchase of services for the implementation of population control for COVID-19, the strengthening of tracking by purchasing services and the provision of COVID-19 vaccines, jeopardising the whole project.
- Cancellation of the Subsidy Plan for the Treatment of Infertility amounting to €2,500/time and non-incentive of HIV-positive €300/month, programs that were widely accepted by the beneficiaries.
- Suspension of the purchase of vaccines and medicines, causing a very serious problem in the approval and provision of specialized medicines for rare diseases, approved by the Committee of Nominal Requests, but also vaccines administered free of charge to adults and children, according to the Vaccination Scheme, and which have very high costs.
- Interruption of the patient subsidy program for going to medical centers abroad to receive treatments that are not offered in Cyprus.
- Freeze all development projects and cancel public health strategies and policies.
The list of the consequences of voting against the State Budget for the health sector is long and the consequences will be felt throughout society. Those who will be most affected, at this critical time of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, will be patients, especially chronic sufferers and patients with rare diseases.
I therefore call on all political forces to examine wisely and carefully the Budget tabled before the House of Representatives by the Minister of Finance and to do the right thing in the well-intentioned interest of the whole of society. Times don't allow experimentation. I hope that reason and common sense will prevail.
Source: eyenews
