CYPRUS: Government ready to resolve GHS technical glitches

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The government is satisfied with the General Health System’s first week in operation, while observers fear the software it is dependent on could be overwhelmed.


President Nicos Anastasiades after visiting Nicosia General Hospital lambasted critics who expected the new system would crash on the first day of implementation.

Acknowledging that several problems made their appearances from the first day, President Anastasiades said that these are decreasing day by day.

"I have given instructions for staff to be on standby to resolve problems as they appear with an understanding to the demands of health providers," said Anastasiades.

During his visit to Nicosia general, the President had the chance to hear comments from the public.

He was pleased to hear positive comments from patients about the GHS, who said that examination procedures are a lot faster with costs being significantly lower. However, some patients from outlying areas not yet covered by the GHS were not happy having to travel to Nicosia for a check-up.

One patient reportedly told the President he had to come all the way from a village in the Kykkos mountains, as there was no health clinic providing General Practitioners in his village.

Stavros Malas, ex-Health Minister for the Christofias administration in 2008-2013, said rural regions are currently suffering as local state health centres are understaffed.

Talking to the Financial Mirror, Malas said that a number of rural villages have neither GPs nor specialists.

He urged the “state to step in and station doctors in such areas in order to provide citizens with the health care they deserve. Unfortunately, no private institution will invest in setting up shop in rural areas”.

Malas also reported on technical problems doctors were facing at the state medical centre in Lakatamia, Nicosia in a tweet on Friday.

He said that the software system is not user-friendly, while doctors do not have access to patients’ records, nor to lab results, they had prescribed for their patients.

“Cypriot taxpayers have paid EUR 40 mln for a system that appears not to be fit for the task.”

The former Health Minister added: “It would appear that the System has succeeded in its goal which was to relieve state hospitals from excess pressure, which will, in the long run contribute to upgrading their services.”

However, he argued the state will soon have to bring more GPs on board, as many are overloaded with work and may not be able to cope further down the line.