Filenews 1 May 2023 - by Marilena Panayi
In nine months and 512 hours of operation, the GHS on-call clinics served 7,452 patients with physical presence, of which 57.3%, i.e. 4,269, were children.
"The numbers speak for themselves and require the reinforcement of on-call clinics", the organized patients claim and are preparing to put before the President of the Republic, with whom they will meet on Monday 8/5, a request for the extension of both the operation egg of the clinics and the days during which the on-call clinics will serve patients.
According to data from the Health Insurance Organization, from the day of their operation, i.e. July 9, 2022, until April 23, 2023, the on-call clinics received a total of 8,300 calls from citizens who needed service. Of these, 758 did not lead to patient service in the clinics, as they either concerned coronavirus patients, who were served by phone, or related to serious emergencies, which were referred to the Emergency Departments or related to non-emergencies and patients were referred to their personal doctors.
On average, from the opening of the on-call clinics until April 4, 120 children every weekend and 92 adults visit the on-call clinics. A significant increase in attendance was recorded, as shown by HIO data, during Easter holidays. Specifically, the number of children who visited the clinics from Good Friday to Easter Monday reached 256, while the number of adults was 160.
The province with the highest number of patients in on-call clinics, in proportion to population, since the opening of the clinics until today is Larnaka.
Every week, the HIO collects the data recorded in the GHS software, with the aim of next July, when one year has passed since the opening of the clinics, to proceed to an evaluation of the institution and to promote, if necessary, changes or additions to both the hours and the services offered during on-call duties.
In order to better evaluate the institution, the organization, according to information provided by "F", began recording the data entered by the Accident and Emergency Departments. From the data evaluated so far, there is a significant decrease in the number of non-emergency cases visiting the Emergency Departments, although the total number of patients referred to First Aid remains quite high. However, the data relating to the RRF have not yet been processed and therefore no firm conclusions can be drawn.
"The data recorded every week by the HIO show us that the institution of on-call clinics has offered assistance to GHS beneficiaries and this assistance would be even greater if clinics operated more hours and more days and not only on weekends and holidays," OSAC Secretary Charalambos Papadopoulos told F. adding that "as OSAC we have raised this issue with the Minister of Health during the meeting we had with her. On-call clinics can only be strengthened and offer services in more hours and days each week."
