Cyprus spends 6.3% of GDP on healthcare

Cyprus spent 6.3% of GDP on healthcare in 2007, the same as in 2006 according to the annual “Health and Hospital Statistics” report from the Statistical Service of Cyprus (Cystat).
The report provides statistical information relating to the medical services of the public sector. It provides, inter alia, data on in-patients, surgical operations, out-patient attendances, bed-occupancy rates, information on medical, nursing and paramedical personnel, various health indicators etc.
The main developments which were recorded in 2007 compared to 2006 are as follows.
In total 63,344 patients were admitted for treatment and discharged from the general hospitals during 2007.
The disease category. “Injury, poisonings and certain other consequences of external causes” had the highest share at 14.6% of in-patients, followed by diseases of the circulatory system with 10.7%, the respiratory system with 9.7% and the digestive system with 9.6%.
Surgical operations performed on in-patients recorded an increase of 1.3% over the previous year and reached 30,706.
General surgery accounted for 18.9% of all operations performed on in-patients, operations of orthopaedic 14.8%, of cardiology 13.3%, of medical 11.0% and operations of gynaecology-maternity 8.9%.
Out-patient attendances increased by 4.1% over the previous year, reaching 1,591,202, of which 65.4% represented attendances at general hospitals.
During 2007 a total of 389,562 patients visited the Casualty Departments of the general hospitals, recording an increase of 7.3% over the previous year.
Expenditure of health services during 2007 is estimated at EUR 976.8 mln of which EUR 458.3 mln represented expenditure of the public sector and EUR 518.5 mln of the private sector.
The share of expenditure as a percent to GDP in 2007 remained constant at 6.3%.
The Report can be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Statistical Service under the section Publications (Category: Annual Publications. Theme: Population & Social Condition. Subtheme: Social Conditions).
The paper publication will later be available from the Government Printing Office in Lefkosia at the price of EUR 13.50.