Cyprus healthcare expenditure just under EUR 1 bln in 2007

Expenditure on health services in 2007 is estimated at EUR 959.6 mln, according to a report just published by the Statistical Service.
The Report entitled “Health and Hospital Statistics” provides statistical information on the medical services of the public sector.
Out of the total, EUR 458.3 mln was spent by the public sector and EUR 501.3 mln by the private sector. Healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP decreased from 6.3% in 2006 to 6.0% in 2007.
The Statistical Service said that total health expenditure for 2008 will be published “at a later stage”.
In 2008, 66.429 patients were admitted for treatment and discharged from the general hospitals.
The disease category “Injury, poisonings and certain other consequences of external causes” accounted for the highest share, accounting for 14.5% of in-patients.
This was followed by “symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified”, accounting for 10.3%.
Diseases of the digestive system accounted for 9.3% and diseases of the circulatory system 9.1%.
Surgical operations performed on in-patients rose by 22.1% over the previous year to reach 33,810.
General surgery accounted for 27.4% of all operations performed on in-patients, operations of orthopaedic surgeons 23.5% and operations of gynaecology-maternity surgeosn 12.4%.
Out-patient attendances increased by 4.8% over the previous year, reaching 1,668,200, of which 67.0% represented attendances at general hospitals.
During 2008 a total of 392,740 patients visited the Casualty Departments of the general hospitals, recording an increase of 0.8% over the previous year.
The report provides, inter alia, data on in-patients, surgical operations, out-patient attendances, bed-occupancy rates, information on medical, nursing and paramedical personnel, and various other health indicators.
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.