The first major step of the National Health System, the biggest reform in the health sector in modern Cyprus history, is set to go into motion on January 2 with the autonomy of all state hospitals and their integration into a single management entity, raising concerns among health workers about the viability of the plan and the strict deadlines that will probably not be met.
Wednesday is to see the first step of the roadmap for the implementation of the NHS as ownership and management of health institutions are to be transferred to the caretaker body, State Health Services Organisation OKYPY. Trade unions, however, have expressed their strong disagreement with the individual contracts to be offered to health workers currently employed the public sector which were drafted by OKYPY in order to persuade all civil servants to resign from the public service and to transfer to the new independent institutions.
Physicians and nurses' unions have described these contracts as incomplete, vague and disappointing, stressing that they will not be able to submit their comments and suggestions by the initial deadline of Monday, December 31.
Therefore, OKYPY will probably have to postpone the date of the official offer of contracts to each employee, which was initially set for January 7. A round of discussions between the government and the unions is expected to take place over the coming days, pushing further back the much-delayed reform.
With all Health Ministry assets related to state hospitals and health care centres transferred to OKYPY as of Wednesday, thousands of health care workers and other state hospital staff are to be temporarily seconded by the government to OKYPY until they sign their individual contracts.
Wednesday is also a big day for health workers as, with the exception of doctors, they are to see a wage increase on the basis of the collective labour agreements reached between trade unions and the government in the summer of 2017, when nurses took to the streets demanding more pay.
Three groups
As of Wednesday, hospitals and health centers throughout Cyprus are to be separated into three geographical groups, with OKYPY officially taking over.
The three groups are the Nicosia District, which will include the capital’s General Hospital, the Makarios Children’s Hospital and all health centers of the city and its district, the Limassol-Paphos region, which will include the Limassol General Hospital, the Paphos Hospital, the rural hospitals of Kyperounta and Polis Chrysochous, as well as all the health centres of the two districts, and finally, the Larnaca-Famagusta region, which will include the Larnaca and Paralimni hospitals and all health centres operating in the two provinces.
The budget approved by the House for the health ministry will be transferred to the OKYPY so as to have the necessary funding to go ahead with the proper staffing of nursing homes and health centres.
OKYPY is expected to start preparing the country’s hospitals and health centres for their smooth transition to the NHS in six months’ time, as of 1 June 2019.
