Filenews 31 October 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
Discussions upon discussions, meetings upon meetings, consultations, letters, letters of reply, proposals and counter-proposals, disagreements in the foreground and in the background, interventions by ministers, MPs, the Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations, to no avail. An agreement between the Pancyprian Association of Occupational Therapists (PSE) and the Health Insurance Organization (HIO), for almost six years, could not be reached.
As a result, thousands of patients, (including children), pay out of their own pockets for services that the GHS covers, but there are no private occupational therapists to serve them, or they suffer in waiting and the hours of the public service in order to be served by the few public professionals, who have joined the System, as an emergency solution.
The non-inclusion of private occupational therapists of the GHS, who should have joined the System about six years ago along with all other Health professionals, is back in the spotlight. The occasion, this time, is the World Day of Occupational Therapy and the relevant positions on the part of the PSE, which, in its post, called for "a substantial dialogue with the HIO and the Ministry of Health for a fair and scientifically documented inclusion of occupational therapy in the GHS".
"This process has gone too far to a provocative degree. Patients and families of children with disabilities and not only, who need occupational therapy on a permanent basis and are forced to bear financial costs that are covered by the GHS, there is an available budget from the HIO but there are no professionals", OSAK spokesman Dimitris Lambrianidis told "F". In order to reach an agreement, Mr. Lambrianidis said, "there must be a real mood from everyone and we must all listen to the same things when we discuss and not everyone should listen to what they want to hear."
For OSAK, he added, "from the beginning it was our basic demand to ensure the uninterrupted provision of services to patients – and here we are talking about children – to have everything they need and for families to stop waiting for disability benefits just to pay for their treatments. These allowances are to cover other needs." Professionals, he pointed out, "must all be paid fairly, but, at the same time, it is not possible to use the needs of patients as a lever of pressure on the HIO in order for the dialogue to end up in one direction."
OSAK, Mr. Lambrianidis concluded, "has already decided that if the discussions do not proceed in the coming days, we will invite all sides to sit down and discuss until an agreement is reached. Our demand is that by January 2026, occupational therapy services are also offered by private occupational therapists within the GHS. Patients can no longer wait for this far-fetched dialogue to be completed. Patients are punished and we only hear that we are "talking". This must stop."
The position of occupational therapists
The Pancyprian Association of Occupational Therapists in the previous days stated, through a statement, that "the new agreement must ensure gradual and documented development of occupational therapy services in the GHS, quality, continuity of care and safety for all citizens, fair compensation and rational costing, equal cooperation between the public and private sectors to avoid inequalities and adequate funding and allocation of resources to ensure sustainability".
In her statements, yesterday, the president of the association, Despina Kaimi, stated that "so far the occupational therapists of OKYPY have joined the GHS". This, as he said, "was a hasty move in 2020-2021 to pressure us all to join, without considering the parameters that would lead to a sustainable integration of private individuals as well. I understand that at that time the intention of the HIO (to include public sector professionals) was to serve patients. Now, the population that needs the services is approaching 100,000. These are the new data. We need to redesign so that we have the right occupational therapists. Occupational therapy needs a lot of equipment and training."
As the president of the WPC said, contacts are being made with the HIO and the Minister of Health. "Now we are preparing to submit some proposals because we consider accession an important step. It strengthens the health system, helps to save resources. So, we must support the health system, but we also ask the Organization to come up with proposals that are documented and aligned with the guidelines of the World Health Organization so that we can move forward as well."
The position of the HIO
In a written statement to "F", the HIO stated that "it is making continuous efforts in order to reach an agreement with the Pancyprian Association of Occupational Therapists with the aim of expanding occupational therapy providers within the framework of the GHS". In this direction, "a number of meetings have been held with the Association, during which the Organization presented its proposal regarding the need to redefine the health conditions that will have access to occupational therapy services within the framework of the GHS". Finally, "the Organization is working on additional options for the expansion of occupational therapy service providers in the GHS".
"We must finally find a solution," says the Minister of Health
"As the Ministry of Health and I personally, we have dealt many times with the issue of occupational therapists and their inclusion in the GHS," the Minister of Health, Michalis Damianos, told "F". "Only from last April until the end of September were letters exchanged, meetings were held. We also had a meeting with the president of the European Occupational Therapists' Association and asked for a written proposal for inclusion in the GHS. We sent reminder letters. We made our efforts and now we are waiting for the next step". At the moment, said the Minister of Health, "we are waiting for the proposal of the occupational therapists, so that we can promote the dialogue, so that we can finally find a solution. The needs of the patients are there and this issue must end at some point."
