Filenews 6 July 2023 - by Marilena Panayi
Opening hours are reduced on Saturdays, increased on Sundays and public holidays – A significant decrease was recorded in visits to public sector Emergency Departments during the GHS era.
From September, changes are coming to on-call clinics with their opening hours reduced by two hours on Saturday and also increased by two hours on Sundays and holidays. The statistical data of the Health Insurance Organisation, one year after the launch of the institution, led to a revision of the working hours of on-call clinics, while the data recorded in a relevant report concerning the attendance of patients in the Accident and Emergency Departments of public hospitals are of interest, since, as it has been established, since the day of the implementation of the GHS There was a large decrease in the total number of visits by beneficiaries of the scheme.
Specifically, and as mentioned in the relevant report, which was put before the members of the HIO Board of Directors last Monday, in 2017 a total of 287,372 visits were recorded in the public sector Departments, in 2018 the number fell to 280,820, in 2019 261,651 visits were recorded, in 2020 166,890, in 2021 visits reached their lowest number 125,416, while in 2022, public sector TAEP received a total of 149,551 visits.
At the same time, the Emergency Department, which operates at Mediterranean Hospital in Limassol within the framework of the GHS, received 2021,20 visits in 160 and 2022,30 visits in 452. To the number of visits to public sector TACs should be added the number of non-beneficiaries of the GHS (e.g. migrants or tourists) who are served by state hospitals and number several thousand annually.
As stressed in the report, "the traffic of the TAEP should not be linked to on-call services", since the services offered are completely different. "On the one hand, the Emergency Departments provide services in cases of emergencies and accidents that pose an immediate danger to the patient's life and, on the other hand, the on-call services serve first-level health emergencies conducted in a medical environment without other supportive services such as laboratory or diagnostic tests, expanded medical equipment or other medical specialties."
It is noted that "in the pre-GHS era – and in the absence of an organized universal health system – patients visited the TAEP to receive free health services, regardless of the severity of their health condition, but with the implementation of the GHS and the integration of all basic services into the system, the volumes of public TACs were greatly reduced".
As far as on-call clinics are concerned, the report includes in detail the data as they have emerged during the first 10 months of operation of the institution.
Specifically, from July 2022 to May 2023, the call centers of the on-call clinics received 8,736 telephone calls on a nationwide basis and received 7,861 visits by adults and children. 57% of the total visits were visits by children and the remaining 43% by adults.
"During the first weeks of operation of the institution and given that it was the summer months, visits were at quite low levels. From October 2022 onwards, with the onset of seasonal viruses, especially in children, there was a large increase, with visits by children almost doubling. Adult visits followed an increasing trend from December 2022 onwards."
Specifically, it was found that "during periods of low morbidity, average visits were approximately 76 visits for children and 66 visits for adults per weekend (during 12 hours of operation).
During the period of increased morbidity (winter and spring), visits almost doubled and visits for children averaged 149 children per weekend (an increase of 96%) while for adults it was 96 visits per weekend, corresponding to a 45% increase."
According to the report, "in the Limassol district, the number of visitors observed throughout the ten months was particularly low in proportion to the population, both for adults (approximately 6 visits per weekend per personal doctor) and for children (approximately 11 visits per weekend per paediatrician).
At the same time, however, the district of Larnaka generally has a particularly high number of visitors. For adults it averaged around 16 visits per weekend per personal doctor and for children it averaged 21 visits."
INTERVENTION
Six hours is enough?
The revision of the opening hours of on-call clinics was imperative, especially on Sundays and holidays, since until today the clinics offered services only for 4 hours.
What we will probably have to wait and see in practice is whether the six hours of operation are enough, especially during the summer months when the opening hours of the clinics will end on Sundays and public holidays at 5 p.m. Of course, since the new timetable will start to apply from September onwards, we will probably have to wait a year when we are back in the summer to assess the situation.
Opening hours now are Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sunday and Public Holidays from 3pm to 7pm.
Come September, opening hours on Saturday will be reduced by two hours and those on Sunday and public holidays extended by two hours.
