Filenews 19 April 2024 - by Marilena Panayi
The SHSO started extending the opening hours of state hospitals, starting with the clinical laboratories of Nicosia General Hospital and aiming to offer services to outpatients during the afternoon hours.
As we are informed, there is already a plan to extend the opening hours of clinical laboratories to state hospitals in other cities, while the planning of the SHSO also includes radiology departments which, with the implementation of the decisions taken, and when the necessary preparation has been made, will offer services to outpatients, in addition to emergencies, and in the afternoon.
According to the new operating schedule of the clinical laboratories of the general hospital of the capital, blood samples are taken: on weekdays (Monday to Friday) from 7 am to 5 pm and on Saturday from 7 am to 2:30.
It is reported that the clinical laboratories of Nicosia Hospital carry out, in addition to common laboratory tests, specialized tests that the private sector is unable to offer and therefore the extension of their opening hours will greatly facilitate Cypriot patients.
As SHSO spokesperson Charalambos Charilaou told philenews, "this is one of the actions planned by the organization in order to achieve the goals it has included in the action plan recently submitted to the President of the Republic" and added that "by extending the opening hours of clinical laboratories, patients are facilitated first and consequently the income capacity of the SHSO is increased".
At the moment, the SHSO spokesperson said, "and in parallel with the clinical laboratories, the extension of opening hours and radiology departments is being studied." It will start again from Nicosia Hospital. "With the purchase of new modern equipment for radiology departments, thoughts are being made to extend the opening hours of the radiology department of Nicosia General Hospital so that we can stop serving only emergencies and inpatients and be able to serve outpatients as well." That is, patients who are referred by their doctors for radiodiagnostic examinations and until today turn to the private sector to be served, since in the public sector services are not provided after 3 in the afternoon.
Concluding, Mr. Charilaou stressed that "the clinical laboratories of Nicosia General Hospital are accredited and their high specialization has made them reference laboratories throughout Cyprus for a wide range of examinations".
