Filenews 15 November 2023 - by Marilena Panayi
Without knowing the medical history and the medications taken by patients who come to their dental offices for the first time in order to undergo the annual cleaning offered to them free of charge under the General Health System, dentists work with the risk of causing bleeding or other unpleasant situations.
This is because dentists (as well as other health professionals) do not have the right, even limited, to access the files of GHS beneficiaries and in many cases, as the president of the Pancyprian Dental Association, Antonis Antoniou, told "F", "we may put some people at huge risk".
The problem, he explained, "does not concern citizens who have been visiting us for years because in these cases we know their medical history and take our measures. Where there is a huge gap is in the beneficiaries of the GHS, who now, due to the fact that they are offered the right to join us once a year, enter our dental clinics without us knowing anything about their history.
In the case of elderly people, things are much more difficult since our elders in many cases cannot help us or do not have access to their electronic file to inform us about it."
"If, for example, a person is a heart patient, we have to use a different substance to achieve anaesthesia. If he has a pacemaker, we need to know about it in order to take our measures. If she is taking anticoagulant medications, we should know in advance, recommend stopping the treatment for a few days and then proceed with cleaning. If we don't do that, we can bleed."
This issue, Mr. Antoniou said, "was raised with the HIO during the meeting we had with representatives of the organization last Monday."
During the meeting, he added, "we put other demands to the HIO. For example, it is found that only 30% of GHS beneficiaries make use of their right to visit the dentist for the services he can offer them through the system. We reiterated that once there is a budget available, we could include other activities in the GHS, such as the appointment of two specific X-rays every two years for prevention purposes, or increase the age limit for fluoridation in children from 12 to 18 years old, but also increase the amount dentists now receive from the GHS."
The HIO, as we are informed, asked dentists for time to first proceed with a campaign to inform citizens about their specific rights within the framework of the GHS and to evaluate the data again in January. The HIO's goal is to increase the percentage of 30% of beneficiaries who visit dentists who are included in the system.
