The Ministry does not agree with the decision of the Administrative Court to allow for the prescription of private doctors within the GSY, nor the OSO
The preparation of a bill by the Ministry of Health with the aim of submitting, if possible, to the next plenary of the House next Thursday, with the aim of resolving the issue of prescription to GESY by private doctors, were discussed on Thursday by members of the Parliamentary Committee.
In his introductory position, Health Minister Michalis Damianos said that the ministry is not in agreement with the administrative court’s ruling to allow the prescription of private doctors within the GSEY, nor is the OSH, who, he said, has appealed against the decision.
He added that the Ministry is essentially agreed with the proposal of the Commission’s law, adding that legal control should be carried out and returned as an urgent to be voted on by the plenary.
The OSA representatives also said, for their part, that they do not agree with the court ruling, adding that in addition to the appeal filed and a request for suspension of the decision is being prepared.
Mr Damianos added that the impact of the implementation of the measure relate to the mode of operation of the system and will affect providers and beneficiaries, as the Agency will not be able to control and apply performance indicators, resulting in the creation of two -speed weaknesses.
He also added that the Single Informatics System cannot be amended to give access to doctors outside the GSE and noted that it is important to make the wording clearer.
The Legal Service spokesman said they are expecting the revised text from the ministry, with the intention of being ready to be presented to the next cabinet.
The president of the Cyprus Private Practitioner Association, Marinos Sotiriou, said fears are not valid that the court’s ruling would bring the end of the GSE, nor the OSH claim that it cannot check out the patient’s medical medicalism to choose his doctor, perhaps constitutional consequences.
The spokesman for the NSA said that the Ministry and OSD are satisfied with them and that they are expecting the Parliament to proceed to serve patients and improve the system.
In the positions of the members of the Commission, DISY MP Charalambos Pazaros asked if it was possible to make a law proposal to the next plenary session of the House, while Diko MP Panikos Leonidou said that the OSO had to correct the law before the law.
In his statements after the end of the session, Mr Damianos said that there was a law proposal by the Chairman of the Health Committee Efthimios Dpiros to the House Health Committee, which agrees with the members of the House Health Committee, as well as the ministry itself “in essence and philosophy”.
“But our position is that, because this is a very important issue, it should also be able to obtain a correct legal control in order to proceed immediately and in the context of the amending bill to submit to Parliament and voting, with a timetable, possibly next week,” he said. “These are the clear intentions of the government,” he said.
He added that the GSY’s philosophy has been discussed and investigated for a long time before the bill is passed, it is specific. “We support both GESY’s philosophy and architecture, where needed, where there are problems and distortions, we try to solve them, always in collaboration with the Health Insurance Organization, which we will see in the future,” he said on the subject.
“Since the agreement of all of us is there, it is not a question of what is the greatest patron of GESY, here we are for patients, here we are for the health system, and certainly we do not need anyone,” he added.
Asked if some of his statements may have left suspicions of a multi -facing system, Mr Damianos said his statements should be taken in their entirety, adding that in democracy everyone has the right to express their positions. “The position of the government is clear in both the philosophy and architecture of GESY, which we have said many times in the last 14 months,” he added.
Asked if the problems that arise lead to the finding that the insurance system was incorrect, the minister said the matter was not under discussion.
“As I have said, there are problems in the General Health Plan itself and we are trying to solve them, there is architecture, there are pillars,” he said. For example, he said, “the personal doctor is a very important pillar for GESY architecture will remain as an important pillar. We need to solve the problem created by the fact that personal doctors should already see more patients. ”
“There are problems in the system we are discussing to always solve them in the context of GSY’s own philosophy and architecture, I have put personal doctors as a priority, it is something we are discussing now,” he said.
Asked about the approximately 30 applications for licensing private hospitals and how they will affect the architecture of the system, Mr Damianos said that the hospital licenses are made by the Ministry of Health’s medical services and then if he wants to apply for his membership.
The Minister of Health added that the organization itself is proceeding with a pilot capacity planning (designing needs and capabilities) and within the next 2-3 months the hospitals will certainly be included, so the Agency will come and see according to its own needs, if and if there are any needs.
“We need some time for this. As a Ministry of Health we are responsible for planning for the whole country and not just GSEY. It is in the context of implementation, there is relevant legislation in the Legal Service for some time. The timetables are within the first quarter of 2026 to have something to move on to the final phase of this capacity planning, “he noted.
He added that the issue of hospitals is being examined by the OS for the GSEY and that only a large hospital is currently out of the system.
Asked about matters of long absence of staff, Mr Damianos said that OKYPY should be placed on the issue, adding that staff in state hospitals are seconded civil servants in OKYPY on specific terms of employment and that one of their problems are high or high.
“It is a visible problem, which the body has difficulty solving, for the reasons I have told you,” he concluded.
The President of the Commission, DISY MP Efthimios Dpiros expressed his satisfaction with the position of the Minister of Health that the law proposal, which he has prepared for the resolution of a serious issue of a law proposal, which, he said, was embraced by all members of the Committee.
He added that a draft law has already been sent to the Legal Service and will be sent in the coming days yet another comprehensive law on legal processing, with the aim of, as the Minister of Health said, next week to be submitted to the Council of Ministers and in the form of urgency to come to the plenary, whose decisions are completely respected.
For his part, MP AKEL, George Loukaidis, welcomed the acceptance, as he said, of AKEL’s recommendation, that the Parliament would proceed next Thursday, either by law or by a bill, to amend the relevant legislation to address the decision.
DIKO MP Chrysanthos Savvidis welcomed the Ministry of Health’s initiative to submit a bill, which, he said, would solve the problem that has arisen through the decision of the administrative court.
“We as a party are in favor of this particular philosophy of the Health System and as it is said soon we will have the bill before us. A health system that is and should be for the whole world, “he added.
EDEK President Marinos Sizopoulos said that the court’s ruling is moving in the right direction “because it is precisely securing two basic principles of the system, the patient’s ability to have a free choice of doctor and hospital”.
“It is obvious that a significant number of patients with serious health problems do not want to replace their doctor, who is outside the GESY, and because they do not come from affluent financial classes, you realize that this is causing them enormous problems with their health and care,” he said.
He added that through a careful reading of the legislation, Article 22 guarantees the patient the right to enjoy system services separately and not connected to each other.
“This is where this right should be given to the patient, since compulsory subscriptions to the system, decide which of these services will be covered by the system and which of these services he himself will cover,” he added.
“Therefore, we believe that any efforts at this time overthrow this decision is an attempt to further create problems in the health system,” he said.
As is well known, Mr Sizopoulos said, “on the part of EDEK, from the first moment of the implementation of the GSEY, we had found this issue, and in 2021 to vote on the government’s budgets, we asked the government then to apply for the legal service.” “That’s why anyone can go to the Legal Service to get that particular opinion,” he concluded.
DIPA MP Michalis Yakoumis said that the philosophy of GESY cannot be changed because it has been applied to serve the low layers of the people, the world that could not receive health services before, and today it can receive them at almost zero costs.
“Certainly the biggest budget of the state is in health and our demands are to have the right health services to citizens and to have the opportunity at the time the patient needs to receive health services to take it immediately,” he noted.
He added that the Commission would wait for the bill in the coming days, adding that the court’s ruling is respected, but there is a distortion of legislative power.