Health Minister Charis Charalambous seems to be one of the few people in government who has grasped the concept of private-public-partnership and is looking to introduce new means to make the national health system more efficient.
This, he says, is the only way to ensure that the National Health Scheme will not fail before its launch.
Having hailed from the private sector, but in charge of a major public company, Minister Charalambous has put his organisational skills to best use. He is soft spoken, is a good listener and he has not adopted the stale “blame it all on the previous guy” approach in order to get out of a difficult spot.
Whereas discussing any private public partnership was considered an anathema by civil sector union bosses, this minister has gone a step further – he is planning the purchase of services from the private sector (a concept raised by his predecessors); the pharmaceuticals services will undergo a major reform (as opposed to the state competing with the private sector); and management methods of private sector administration are being introduced to break away from the “civil servant mentality”.
The Minister is also not afraid to criticize the people in his own ministry whenever they seem to be at fault. And this he does, in the manner of a good manager, with gentle words and balanced statements.
A good example was the latest report of glass-like fragments in a bottle of an imported soft drink and a rusty nail in an olive pie. He was right to defend the way with which the health services functioned, ie. they went by the book. However, he used the privilege afforded to his office to criticize the public officers on duty for not taking the initiative to call or locate the interested parties as the public health was at risk.
Such modern methods of operation help ordinary citizens have greater respect for public services, and if the people are confident in the competent minister and understand the workings of the public sector, then state services, such as the hospitals, will win the support of all people and become more efficient.
Good management pays, even in government!
