Doctors working in the public sector who will join the General Health Insurance System (GHIS) as GPs will have extra financial benefits over and above their salary.
According to GHIS legislation, the Health Insurance Organisation, which is already in talks with the Cyprus Medical Association, will determine the salary of GPs providing services to GHIS. The Organisation has already proposed the amount of €100,000 on average for every 1,000 patients for GPs.
However, doctors who will be providing primary health care services to the GHIS will be civil servants who will receive a specified annual salary depending on where they stand on the pay scales. This makes their income about half of what a doctor with a private practice would earn in a year. The matter has already been addressed by the Ministry of Health, while the doctors’ unions are also expected to participate in future discussions to tackle what they consider to be an injustice.
The ministry has also suggested the restructuring of primary health care and the integration of Health Centres in Nicosia. It has been decided that the Health Insurance Organisation will not only be contracted with the State Health Service, but also with any personal physician who will work at the Health Centres separately and with his own patients list. All GPs contracted in each city (both in the public and private sector) will provide on-call services and will be compensated by the Health Insurance Organisation.
The State Health Services Agency has asked the House to release funds for a study to “determine the additional economic benefits (incentives) of GPs working in Primary Healthcare”.
Granting additional economic benefits to public doctors will work, according to the Ministry of Health:
– As an incentive to increase productivity and improve the quality of healthcare services provided.
– As a way to keep in service doctors who will attract and enlist a large number of beneficiaries in the General Health System.
– As an incentive to provide medical services in rural / remote areas.
