Cyprus patient attendances during 2004 were increased by 8.0% over the previous year, reaching 1,483,407, of which 67.5% represented attendances at general hospitals.
According to the Annual Report for the year 2004 of the Statistical Service of Cyprus “Health and Hospital Statistics”, the share of expenditure as a percentage of GDP increased from 5.7% in 1998 to 6.2% in 2004 and during that year 57,436 patients were admitted for treatment and discharged from the general hospitals, compared with 56,850 in 2003, recording an increase of 1.0%.
Expectation of life at birth for the period 2002-2003 was 77.0 years for men and 81.4 years for women.
The Report, according to an official announcement, provides statistical information relating to the medical services of the public sector. It provides, inter alia, data on in-patients, surgical operations, outpatient attendances, bed-occupancy rates, information on medical, nursing and paramedical personnel and various health indicators.
Compared to 2003, in 2004 the disease category, “Injury, poisonings and certain other consequences of external causes” has the highest share at 15.5% of in-patients, followed by diseases of the circulatory system with 10.9%, the digestive system with 9.7% and the respiratory system with 9.4%.
Surgical operations performed on in-patients recorded a decrease of 3.3% over the previous year and reached 19,789 and operations on the digestive system accounted for 21.5% of all operations performed on in-patients, operations on the musculoskeletal system 14.9%, on genital organs of females 13.9%, on eyes 11.7% and operations of nose, mouth and pharynx 8.7%.
Diseases of the circulatory system with 27.0%, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases with 12.9% and diseases of the respiratory system with 11.6% were the main disease categories diagnosed in outpatients.
During 2004, 348,584 patients visited the Casualty Departments of the general hospitals, recording an increase of 1.3% over the previous year.
Expenditure of health services during 2004 is estimated at 449.2 mln Cyprus pounds of which 214.6 mln Cyprus pounds represented expenditure of the public sector and 234.6 mln Cyprus pounds of the private sector.
Based on available data for the public and private sector, during 2004 there were 375 persons per doctor, whilst the corresponding indicator for 2003 was 384 persons per doctor and 483 for 1990.
There were also 227 persons per nurse, whilst the corresponding indicator for 2003 was 235 persons per nurse and 234 for 1990 and 240 persons per hospital bed, whilst the corresponding indicator for 2003 was 234 persons per hospital bed and 170 for 1990.
