in-cyprus 30 December 2022 - by Annie Charalambous
Private hospitals within the island’s general health scheme have come under surveillance by health authorities after three reported incidents where doctors turned away patients in urgent need of medical treatment on Christmas Eve.
In fact, Health Minster Michalis Hadjipantela on Thursday said the licenses of doctors working in a private hospital in Nicosia who turned away two women – one with an aortic aneurism – could be revoked.
Without even being seen to when she arrived, the woman wit aneurysm was immediately told to go to the Emergency Ward of the Nicosia General Hospital.
The second one arrived complaining of a severe gastroenterological issue but was told to visit a different private hospital because all the specialists at the premises were on leave.
Hadjipantela who described the incidents as “unacceptable” also said that he had already contacted the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO). And that they had assured him that exemplary penalties will be handed down upon the doctors in question.
All Gesy-affiliated private hospitals will come under surveillance after the unacceptable incidents, the Minister also said.
He also sent the message that doctors at private hospitals within the Gesy cannot select specific cases and send the rest of them to already overburdened Emergency wards.
