EDITORIAL: With doctors leaving, is Cyprus public health at risk?

Judging from the hysteria reported in part of the media about a handful or two of doctors at the Nicosia General Hospital heading for the private sector, would suggest that Cyprus media has officially entered what is commonly known as “the silly season”.
The fact that eight government doctors (out of several hundred) left the state hospital would have raised concerns if they hadn’t gone to the private sector. On the other hand, members of the trade unions who believe that have the God-given right to say who goes and who stays should have been happy because eight new positions would be vacated for promotions.
What is of greater concern is that some of the doctors are not leaving the state network for financial reasons, but because of the “dire conditions” public sector doctors are obliged to work under. This sounds more of facts being twisted around to ride the sensationalist wave.
It is a known fact that state hospitals are not the best of employers and do not offer the best of facilities to their employees or their patients.
But issues such as excessive workloads, lack of vital medical supplies, long queues for treatment and other serious shortcomings in the hospital are issues that the previous administration failed to act upon with its silent approach to the National Health System (GESY), while the present administration will probably continue to be hesitant due to the extreme complication of the whole package.
There is an Interim GESY Council in place and they should be given full powers to push the deal through. Parliament should also wake up and be prepared to legislate the matter if the relative ministries continue to drag their feet. And finally, the issue of the independence of state hospitals that must be transformed into unitary trusts would do wonders to raise the competition between private and public services and between hospitals themselves.
As long as the dreaded GESY is not in place, doctors fresh out of medical school will continue to head for the state hospitals to get their mandatory years’ experience and then abandon the public sector for better pay and work conditions in the private sector.
However, nobody seems to mention the number of new recruits the state hospitals have retained over the past years, with some of the best in their field often employed only in the public sector. More often than not, in the case of an emergency or an expert consult, private sector patients are referred to the state hospitals.
So, in order to slow down the alleged “brain drain”, the government ought to push through with the GESY that in itself will pave the way for reforms within the public sector in general and offer equal employment opportunities for young doctors and specialists.