The transfer of patients from Cyprus to overseas medical centers will soon come under the jurisdiction of the Health Insurance Organisation and cease being under that of the Health Ministry.
This is what Philenews reported on Thursday citing President Nikos Christodoulides himself who also clarified that this will apply only to beneficiaries of the island’s General Health Plan (Gesy).
“The Ministry of Health will only be responsible for the minor part concerning the non-beneficiaries of Gesy as well as extremely urgent cases,” he also said.
Moreover, Minister of Health Popi Kanari told Philenews that – at the moment – the government expects the HIO to prepare its timetables to push forward the necessary procedures.
“Once the Ministry has the relevant schedules in hand, additional procedures will be pushed forward in a bid to enable the transfer of experienced officials of the Ministry of Health, who have been working on the subject for years, to the HIO,” she also said.
The inclusion in Gesy of the practice of sending patients abroad was a long-standing demand by the Federation of Cyprus Patients’ Associations.
Federation head Charalambos Papadopoulos said on Wednesday that the necessary procedures must be pushed forward without any further delay.
