Filenews 1 October 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
The role of auditor was taken over by the Ministry of Health, in which the creation of a Department for the Supervision of the General Health System has already begun. Four officers have taken office, while the Public Service Committee is pending the appointment of the head of the Department, in order to appoint the new supervisor of the GHS.
All service providers of the System have been informed about this, through the Health Insurance Organization, who will have, from now on, the right to submit their complaints or comments on the way the GHS is implemented by the HIO to the Ministry.
The control and supervision of the GHS is changing hands after the recent amendment of the legislation and the abolition of the institution of the Commissioner for Supervision, whose responsibilities have been transferred, in terms of the implementation of the law governing the operation of the System and the complaints of providers to the Ministry of Health, and in terms of patients and their own complaints and complaints, to the Patient's Advocate, whose appointment by the President of the Republic is also pending.
According to the official information received in the previous days by all GHS health service providers, the supervision department of the Ministry of Health will "examine any complaint submitted by a health care service provider" concerning:
>> A decision, act or omission of the Health Insurance Organization regarding the health care services covered by the Organization.
>> Act or omission of a healthcare service provider in the context of the implementation of the health care service contract concluded with the Organization.
>> Decision, act or omission of the HIO in relation to health care service providers.
It will be possible for professionals to submit complaints both by themselves personally, as natural or legal persons and through their authorised representatives (e.g. legal advisers).
In addition to the complaints/complaints submitted by the providers, the GHS Supervision Department will also examine ex officio issues that it deems need to be investigated and concern the implementation of the System's legislation by the HIO.
In fact, as foreseen, the Department will also examine issues following instructions received from the Council of Ministers.
"The competent authority does not have the authority to examine and will not examine a complaint or issue:
>> For which proceedings are pending before a court or before another administrative or independent authority operating under the provisions of another law and which falls within the competences of the Patient Ombudsman, as defined in the Law on the Safeguarding and Protection of Patients' Rights.
Regarding the appointment of the Patient Ombudsman, based on the legislation, it will examine patient complaints that will concern both internal and non-GHS health services. For the implementation of the Law, as passed by the Parliament, it is necessary to staff the Office of the Patient Ombudsman, the establishment of Committees and the appointment of patient rights officers in all hospitals and health service structures.
As the Minister of Health himself admitted in his statements last week, the appointment of the Ombudsman by the government has already been delayed.
As far as the background is concerned, OSAK gave two specific names to Nikos Christodoulides, who pledged to answer, after first studying all the data around the people proposed by the Patients' Federation.
Since then, unofficial discussions have followed between the government and OSAK and as we are informed, for at least one person, the President's attitude is rather negative. For the second person, who was proposed by OSAK, there has not been, so far, a clear answer, although it seems that, for the time being, this name is the most prevalent for appointment to the position of the first Patient Ombudsman.
The President will proceed, if the recent positions of the Minister of Health are verified, to announce the name of the first Patient Ombudsman within the next few days, although it is not excluded that this appointment will be announced in the context of other changes/appointments that Nikos Christodoulidis intends to proceed with, including the reshuffle.
Sending patients abroad within the GHS
As of today (practically from tomorrow) the program for sending patients abroad, which until now was implemented by the Ministry of Health, is officially transferred to the HIO.
It will concern only the beneficiaries of the General Health System and the requests to send patients abroad for specialized care will be submitted electronically by the treating doctors.
The evaluation of the requests will be by a team of experts with 140 members (doctors and other health professionals) who will be invited according to their specialty and the case under examination.
For life-threatening incidents, an immediate response mechanism has been created at the HIO, which includes the 24-hour operation of a telephone communication line.
