Filenews 3 June 2024
We consider it our duty as a state to ensure the provision of quality and specialized services to citizens and to ensure their timely access to them, the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Monday in his address at the inauguration ceremony of the Pancyprian Trauma Centre at Nicosia General Hospital.
According to the data reported during the inauguration ceremony, as of September 19, 2022, the Trauma Center has handled 530 injured people of which, 125 are in critical condition and of whom 107 were rescued.
It was also announced that next Monday, the operation of a rapid intervention rescue machine (motorcycle) team of the Ambulance Service for rapid response to critical incidents during hours of increased traffic was announced.
President Christodoulides said in his address that the inauguration of the Pancyprian Trauma Centre is "a landmark day" for Nicosia General Hospital, noting that it is a modern Centre, which focuses on providing specialised care to patients, "something that was missing". "You know how important it is for traumas like this to have an immediate response," he added. Therefore, he continued, "the most important thing we take away from today's event is that we can respond clearly faster with what this entails for the lives of our fellow human beings who have this need."
The operation of the Center, President Christodoulides said, "comes to fill a gap". He then congratulated all those who contributed to this effort, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Christina Giannaki, the National Trauma Committee, and the medical staff "for the results".
President Christodoulides also said that the health sector along with that of education "are the most important sectors" for his government. "These are two areas where the state has a primary responsibility to offer all its citizens the same accessibility and above all quality services," he said.
"People-centred policies are the key component of our decisions and actions and I assure you that the promotion of such projects is high on our priorities," he added.
"We consider it our duty as a state to ensure the provision of quality and specialized services to citizens and to ensure their timely access to them," he noted.
Referring to the implementation of the GHS, which, as he said, is "one of the most important social reforms since the establishment of the Republic" and which "opened new paths in the provision of health services". As a Government, he said, "we intend not only to preserve it, but to upgrade it, to protect it, to strengthen it even more, with our main goal – and in this effort we must work together, on how we further enhance the services offered and the operation of the Center is this goal that serves, enhances the services offered".
He also noted that he "absolutely" agrees with what was mentioned during the event, "that SHSO and, by extension, our public hospitals are for the difficult, timeless".
In his address, the Minister of Health, Michalis Damianos, said that the operation of the Pancyprian Trauma Centre "is a milestone in the system of modern trauma treatment in our country".
"The long-standing gaps in the treatment of trauma in our country and the increasing number of injuries highlighted as an absolute necessity the even more timely and specialized intervention in the management of these incidents," he noted.
From the data he receives from the trauma file, he said, "it seems that for almost two years the operation of the Center has contributed the most." For a significant period, before the operation of the Trauma Centre at Nicosia General Hospital (03/2021-09/2022), he said, the duration of hospitalization of injured people with a significant degree of injury severity in a ward was just over 20 days.
After the operation of the Trauma Center and for the corresponding period (09/2022-04/2024), this duration was reduced to 15 days. Correspondingly, he said, the duration of hospitalization for injuries with a higher degree of severity is "declining", from 38 days to just under 17 days.
In addition, he said, 1,628 cases of blunt injuries have been treated at Nicosia Hospital and 96 patients have been treated over a period of 21 months, from September 19, 2022 to April 4, 2024. He said 530 cases have been treated by the trauma centre. Of these, 97.19% have survived, while mortality constitutes 2.81% of these incidents, compared to 3.45% in the corresponding previous period, the Minister said.
"The operation of the Trauma Center undoubtedly offers patients immediate accessibility to quality health services on the basis of international protocols," he added, while the establishment and operation of the National Trauma Committee, with its existing recommendation, enhances the sense of security regarding the scientific approach to the issue.
At the beginning of the event, Archbishop George performed holy water blessing. Present at the event were also the Minister of Defence, Vasilis Palmas, the Government Spokesman, Konstantinos Letympiotis, the President and members of the House Standing Committee on Health, doctors and staff of the Trauma Center, among others.
