Filenews 2 June 2022 - by Marilena Panagi
Better quality of services from the GHS, patients ask by submitting their complaints to the "Observatory" of the Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations and their complaints concern both public and private hospitals, diagnostic centres and clinical laboratories.
Most of the complaints of the last six months concern the pharmaceutical sector, the quality of services offered by some GHS providers, whom they name and the difficulties they face in accessing services and especially in arranging an appointment with a doctor.
Although 82% of citizens (according to data released yesterday by the HIO), say they are satisfied with the services they receive from the GHS, the 295 total complaints received by the "Observatory", confirm the distortions that are currently detected in the System and lead to inconvenience and despair in some cases to patients.
As far as hospitals are concerned, the citizens' complaints mainly concern the behaviour of doctors and nurses, but also the ban on visiting hours, which continued to apply until recently due to the restrictive measures in place to manage the pandemic. In 13 cases, citizens spoke of the medical negligence of doctors of private and public hospitals of the GHS and in several other cases citizens complained about the behaviour of which they suffered.
For example, a woman was expecting to undergo surgery in a private sector hospital but at the last minute she was informed that her surgery was postponed because the doctor who would operate on her decided to leave. The second example involved a woman who, after surgery in a private hospital, suffered a shock and according to the complaint "was tied to the bed so as not to leave". In all cases, citizens stressed the need for control and monitoring of all GHS service providers, and for the way they treat their patients.
Sixty-five complaints concerned the state hospitals and mainly the way of dealing with patients with coronavirus, the delays observed in the transfer of patients from the Accident and Emergency Departments to the wards and of course the long waiting time for service by the TAEP and the dialysis units of the hospitals of the CySEC.
For example, an elderly woman with severe heart failure who was hospitalized in a state hospital but her children and grandchildren could not see her or in another case a patient who had been decided by the TAEP that she should be admitted to a ward in the morning of one day and was finally transferred to the ward 24 hours later. The complaints of patients concerning the public sector and some concerning the delay observed in patient registrations which continue to take place through the pre-GHS system. An indicative case is a woman who, for a visit to a doctor that lasted less than ten minutes, was waiting for registration for an hour and a half.
In detail and according to the data recorded by the Observatory, many patients face great difficulty in arranging an appointment with a GHS doctor. Indicative are the examples of two patients, one of whom had turned to gastroenterologists in February 2022 and informed him that he would be able to see a doctor "at the earliest in a month and a half". The second patient also sought an appointment with an ophthalmologist in February, and a doctor could see him in July and a second in December 2022. A third example involved a woman with a neurological condition who for a month tried to arrange an appointment with a doctor at a state hospital but did not answer the phones.
About ten complaints concerned the quality of services received by citizens from diagnostic centres and clinical laboratories of the GHS.
Typical is the case of a woman who complained that a clinical laboratory had to take blood three times on different days to be able to carry out a specific laboratory test while in a second case a citizen complained that a diagnostic centre submitted him to a CT scan without receiving contrast fluid after he had informed that he was allergic and then had to undergo an MRI to show the problem that he was facing.
All involved will be informed
"In most cases, the OSAK conveys the patients' complaints to all interested parties, asking either for the resolution of the problems or for their intervention, if necessary. Our finding that several of the complaints are repeated and concern specific providers in the public and private sector and surely the HIO will be informed about them in detail", the president of OSAK Marios Kouloumas told "F".
"Zero tolerance towards every abuser"
Three years ago, "the time has come to remedy an unacceptable distortion and the GHS was born", former Health Minister George Pamboridis tells "F". "The GHS is the baby of all of us", and he speaks of some who, "are fighting methodically to change its philosophy".
"Health is the most important good for every person and public health, as the recent pandemic has shown, is perhaps the most important asset of a society. Cyprus as a European state could not continue to be the only tragic exception. Three years ago, the time came to remedy this unacceptable distortion and the GHS was born. And he was born because the anonymous citizen claimed it and demanded it. People realized that the State itself was depriving them of a good that was their basic right. As long as some politicians show more sensitivity to the organised groups of professionals and businessmen, the more they like to associate with the haves and have-nots, the more the needs of the ordinary citizen will be sidelined and the public interest will recede in the interests of the special interest of the mothers. That is why each of us can only remain a shield and protector of the GHS.
The GHS is the baby of all of us who is here to stay. Every protector, however, must be at the forefront both in safeguarding the GHS from the minions of organized interests who are methodically fighting to change its philosophy, as well as from the inadequacy and abuses of those who think they have found another way to treasure, in a country where theft and deception go to be considered smartness. Therefore, zero tolerance towards any abuser and strict adherence to GHS standards by those who were willing to supervise its proper implementation. If that is the case, the GHS has nothing to fear."
