Filenews 28 June 2022 - byMarilena Panayi
The operation of the on-call clinics of the GHS on July 9, is rather impossible, say the doctors of the State, with the president of the Pancyprian Guild of Government Doctors, Sotiris Koumas, stating that the place where the private doctors who will assist the public sector in the on-call program will offer their services has not yet been found.
The statements of the president of PASYKI to "F", show that the agreement reached last week at the Ministry of Health is probably interpreted in a different way by each side, since both on the part of the Ministry of Health and on the part of the SHSO, the readiness for the operation of the clinics was expressed yesterday on the date set at the last meeting between all those involved.
The outstanding issues that exist at the moment, Sotiris Koumas said, are two. First: "We cannot say that the State has 86 personal doctors. Some of these 86 are even in the Ministry of Health. At the same time, about a third of them serve in the rural Health Centres and the doctors there are already on-call. For example, in Platres there are two doctors who already make fifteen on-call days a month each. What are we going to do with them? So we cannot say that we have 86 doctors. On the other hand, we also have paediatricians.
In Makarios, there are some colleagues, if I am not mistaken 5, who are only personal doctors. The rest also do inpatient hospitalization and therefore have the on-call services in the wards. What will happen? Will we create a problem for the Departments? We see that the program does not come out with this data and therefore the assistance of private personal doctors will be needed. He continued: "And we go to the second pending issue, where we have to see where these private sector doctors will be housed. Officially they say that they do not accept to be on call from their clinics and on the other hand is our well-known objection to the presence of private individuals in the Health Centres of the State. This is state property and needs special regulation for private individuals to use it."
On the start date of the on-call, he said that "the decision taken was not final. A proposal came downstairs to do exercises on paper and see if it can work, so the date should not be taken for granted."
The outstanding issues identified by PASYKI do not seem to be shared by the SHSO. The spokesperson of the Organization, Charalambos Charilaou, told "F" that "we are proceeding normally with our plans. We are preparing our program and preparing for the operation of the on-call clinics as agreed".
The communications advisor of the Minister of Health, Konstantinos Athanasiou, stated for his part that "the start of the operation of the clinics on July 9, we can say that it will be on a pilot basis. To announce this date, it means that the parties agreed and the spaces that will house the doctors were agreed."
