Filenews 31 July 2024 - by Marilena Panayi
The Patient Ombudsman arrives and the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS leaves, whose responsibilities are transferred to a separate Department at the Ministry of Health. Both relevant bills are ready and are expected to be submitted to Parliament for voting very soon. If this intention of the government does not come up against interests, which for years have been cited as obstacles to the operation of the Patient Ombudsman, then the law on patients' rights, which has been passed since 2005 and has never been fully implemented to date, will finally be completed.
Of course, voices of protest against the relevant decisions of the government have already begun to be heard in the last twenty-four hours on the part of the employees of the Office of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS, with the Minister of Health, however, reassuring through "F", saying that "no one will lose either his job or his civil servant status".
"Let us clarify that the institution of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS is not abolished. However, through an amending bill, its responsibilities regarding the supervision of the implementation of the legislation of the General Health System will be transferred to a separate department, headed by a head, in the Ministry of Health and its responsibilities regarding patients' problems/complaints will pass to the Patient Ombudsman", said Michalis Damianos, adding that "in order to finally proceed and complete the reform in the Health sector, we must the Ministry of Health to begin to assume its supervisory role in practice". Some individual issues that may arise, the Minister of Health said, "we will definitely see them and it is important that the two bills are submitted together for voting by Parliament."
Ignorance of the government's intentions was declared by the Commissioner for GHS Supervision, Christodoulos Kaisis (whose term ends today). However, "F" reports that the Commissioner was informed about the government's plans long ago. "I know that you also know from the media," Christodoulos Kaisis said and went on to say that "tomorrow (today) my term ends and I do not know if a new Commissioner will be appointed by the Council of Ministers to hand him over."
The President of the Cyprus Medical Association, Petros Agathangelou, raised the issue of legislation, whose positions, however, are probably answered by the two amending bills that have already been prepared.
The Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations responded to the protests of the employees at the office of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS, stressing that "this issue is not at all a trade union issue to hear these reactions. It is a matter of politics. It is a matter of legislation that will be amended and the commissioner's office will simply be transferred to the Ministry of Health as a separate department." The health sector "must finally be tidied up and the reform must finally be led in the right direction", OSAC Secretary Marios Charalambides told "F", stressing that "the operation of the institution of the Patient Ombudsman comes to fill a very large gap and complete the implementation of the 2005 law on patients' rights. For 20 years this law has not been enforced."
Regarding the transfer of the responsibilities of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS to the Ministry of Health, Mr. Charalambides said that "OSAC agrees with this change because, as foreseen by the design of the reform, the Ministry of Health must change its role and supervise and control the entire health sector and, of course, the proper functioning of the GHS and the way in which the Health Insurance Organisation operates".
Therefore, "the supervision part goes to the Ministry of Health and the Ombudsman will undertake the investigation of complaints because this was the design of the institution from the beginning. The Ombudsman will have the obligation to support, support and advocate for the patient and to promote his rights where and where needed", added Mr. Charalambides. "Some say that in order for the Supervisor to be transferred to the Ministry of Health, the legislation needs to be changed. For this reason, an amending bill has been made. Patients finally need their Ombudsman. The agreement to transfer the responsibilities of the Supervisor to the Ministry of Health has been made for some time and we are aware that the office of the Commissioner for Supervision was also informed about this," he concluded.
Regarding the workers, the representative of the union ISOITA, Eugenia Efstathiou, made statements, saying that "from tomorrow they do not even know where they will be, as until yesterday afternoon they had not received any official information". At the same time, he argued that "with the actions taken by the Ministry, they are going to blow everything up".
Hundreds of complaints received by the Office of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS
Hundreds of complaints from patients and health professionals have been received in its five years of operation by the Office of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS. During a press conference held on the occasion of the end of his mandate, Christodoulos Kaisis referred to the role of his Office, the efforts made to promote its work and the difficulties it faced during the five years of operation of the GHS.
"We receive and receive many complaints every day both by phone and/or by visiting the Office," Kaissis said, adding that solving patients' problems was a priority for him.
The Office of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the GHS also received complaints from professionals "concerning mainly the operation of the GHS system software but also the phenomenon of "interception" of patients from the lists of some personal doctors of the System.
"We have had complaints from healthcare recipients regarding the delay in examination by a personal doctor, especially at the beginning of the system, bad behavior and treatment, delays in MRI scans, the procedure followed by some personal doctors in their practices, the financial burden from doctors and medicines."
In 2021, the Office of the GHS Supervisory Commissioner received a total of 192 written complaints. In 2022 it received 132 complaints, in 2023 the number of written complaints reached 157 and in 2024 to date 101.
Presenting the complaints, Mr. Kaissis referred to cases of doctors who, while registered in the GHS as personal doctors, have other specialties, e.g. cardiology, and therefore subject their patients to cardiac examinations and charge them privately.
