RADIOLOGY CENTRES - PHONE CALLS, PLEAS, BLACKMAIL AND THREATS ABOUT THE PRESENCE OR NOT OF RADIOLOGISTS - Filenews 12/3 by Marilena Panayi
Literally all those involved in the health sector are tangled with hair, with the parliamentary parties having also entered the orgiastic background of the last few months, which as the days go by becomes even more intense and of course concerns the physical presence or not of doctors specializing in radiology during all imaging tests in radiology centers.
The relevant bill, so far, has been included and removed from the agenda of the Plenary Session of the Parliament twice and no one knows if it will finally be discussed during today's session, since, until yesterday, the parties were preparing the amendments by participating, at the same time, both in consultation with each other, and in consultation with the various parties involved.
The quarrel had started before the bill was even discussed in principle by the parliamentary committee on health. On the one hand, radiologists who are fighting to ensure their physical presence in diagnostic centers, citing risks for patients. On the other hand, individuals/owners of diagnostic centers and professionals of related specialties who claim that telemedicine is now applied internationally without posing risks to patient safety.
The recent report of the Audit Office on the A&E of the general hospitals of Nicosia and Limassol and the finding that the State Health Services Organization also purchases services from radiologists based in Greece, added more fuel to the fire, causing renewed discussions.
Phone calls and text messages to MPs and parties, stakeholders as well as journalists and the media in general have become a daily phenomenon in the last six months, with each side supporting its own positions, always putting the best interests of patients first.
It is recalled, after all, that last October, MPs-members of the parliamentary committee on Health expressed on television their strong dissatisfaction with the attitude of the representatives of the two sides, speaking of "fanaticism" and calling on the representatives of the one and the other to let the Parliament study, without pressure, the procedure of the article-by-article debate.
The pressures, of course, did not stop, while the bodies representing both the radiation centers and the doctors, since then and from time to time, issued announcements, calling on the Parliament to stand "up to the occasion", with the circumstances being interpreted differently, depending on the authors.
During the process of the article-by-article discussion of the bill by the parliamentary committee on health, the same scene continued, while almost before each meeting, mainly every Wednesday afternoon (the parliamentary committee on health meets on Thursday), information circulated that the parties would serve the interests of one side or the other
Inevitably, this issue was discussed several times at the level of a parliamentary committee during the study of the bill, with the parties taking a position on the relevant provisions in favor of one side or the other. Eventually, while disagreements were still being recorded among the MPs, the article-by-article discussion was completed and the bill made its way to be passed into law, which, however, has not been possible to date since the pressures, phone calls, messages and in some cases blackmail and threats to parties and other stakeholders have never stopped. After all, the fact that we are already in a pre-election period aggravated the situation even more.
In fact, in the last 48 hours and while the parties were in the process of preparing amendments in order to change provisions that had been reached by the parliamentary committee on Health, those involved invoked the consent of the organized patients to support their positions with the Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations reacting and being forced to take a public position through its announcement.
The bill is included in the agenda of the Plenary Session that meets in the afternoon, without, of course, this meaning that it will eventually be passed into law. The amendments, moreover, that have been prepared, if the parties did not manage to reach a common line, will probably lead to a new discussion.
Of course, it must be considered certain that the background, until the last moment, will continue to be intense and it is possible that if the scales tip in one side or the other, the public debate will flare up again in the coming days.
