Filenews 30 July 2024 - by Marilena Panayi
The bill that provides for the establishment of the Institution of the Patient Ombudsman is in the final straight and, as we are informed, a parallel bill is at an advanced stage, which abolishes the operation of the Office of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS and provides for the transfer of its responsibilities to the Ministry of Health.
With these changes, the Ministry of Health, as foreseen by the design of the reform of the Health sector, now assumes a supervisory and control role both for the effectiveness of the decisions taken by the Health Insurance Organisation and for the quality of services offered inside and outside the General System to Cypriot citizens/patients.
The simultaneous promotion of the two bills in Parliament is considered necessary, as to a large extent the delay in the establishment of the institution of the Patient Ombudsman has been impinged for several years on tensions that occasionally arose and concerned the possibility of a conflict of responsibilities between the Ombudsman and the Supervisor of the GHS.
With this change, the supervisory role of the Commissioner for Supervision will pass to the Ministry of Health and other responsibilities will be transferred to the Office of the Patient Ombudsman who, based on his philosophy, deriving from the legislation on patients' rights, will be responsible for dealing with issues related tothe service of patients by health service providers inside and outside the GHS.
The relevant decisions were taken some time ago and both bills were prepared for this purpose.
It is reported that the term of office of GHS Supervisory Commissioner Christodoulos Kaisis is currently expiring and given the abolition of his Office, it is likely that the Government will not proceed with the appointment of another person in his place.
According to information, the staff currently working in the office of the Commissioner for Supervision will cover other needs of the Ministry of Health.
A relevant announcement was issued a while ago by the trade union "Equality" which, among other things, states that "The current Commissioner, Christodoulos Kaisis, completes his term of office on July 31, 2024, in just two days from today, and unfortunately a new Commissioner has not yet been appointed to succeed him" and adds, "despite the major importance of the institution for the proper functioning of the General Health System of our country, Lately, there has been a lot of speculation about its abolition. This speculation is reinforced by the delay in appointing a new Commissioner, in accordance with current legislation."
The guild recalls that "the Office of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS has received technical assistance from the European Union through a program of DG Reform, amounting to € 500,000, aimed at enhancing its effective operation. Therefore, the possible abolition of such an institution would not only entail the waste of public money of Cyprus, since it is a service with its own budget, equipment and personnel, but also the waste of European resources.
