His wife, Dr. Androulla Eleftheriou thanked the State, the health professionals who, she said, with great diligence have excelled themselves in many periods of the pandemic that we are still experiencing and the patient society that contributed to the formulation of policies for the best possible management of the pandemic.
The conference, with the participation of many scientific speakers, was held under the auspices of the President of the Parliament, Anita Demetriou.
In her address, Ms Demetriou said that the global health crisis has already brought significant turmoil and dysfunctions at both social and economic levels. "The management demands and pressures placed on the health system are unprecedented but not insurmountable. The medical world of Cyprus with our nurses and all health professionals are responding to the needs of patients with admirable vigour and mental reserves," she noted.
At the same time, he continued, the officials of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health are making tireless efforts to deal with the pandemic. "But we must not miss the more specific challenges faced by vulnerable groups in our society, whether these are defined on the basis of chronic serious conditions or on an age or other basis," he added.
"There are issues of accessibility, mental health, social functioning, economic hardship and others that place additional burdens on the so-tested vulnerable groups," he added.
He stressed that the State must be in constant search and we need to study good practices in the international arena, listen to proposals from the Cypriot medical and wider scientific community and listen to the messages of patients as expressed through organised groups representing them.
He assured that the House of Representatives, within its powers and responsibilities, stands ready at all times to debate, consider and legislate on matters relating to these issues.
The President of the Pancyprian Medical Association Petros Agathangelou said that the conditions under which the pandemic has forced us to operate in the last two years are difficult and often adverse. "Along with our endurance, everyone's capabilities and effectiveness are being tested under the pressure not only of the pandemic but also of the health system itself which is being tested and conditions that require constant vigilance and modernisation so that Cyprus does not regress while science is evolving rapidly internationally, applying innovations and placing special emphasis on the quality of health services," he added.
He said the pressure is also on vulnerable groups especially the chronically ill.
"GHS as a reform is a system that in order to be able to meet the needs of society must take prevention, health promotion, rare diseases, chronic sufferers and ensure equal access to innovative treatments," he said.
In her welcome address, University of Nicosia representative Elena Kritzeli referred to the contribution of the Faculty of Medicine made within the framework of cooperation with the International Thalassaemia Federation
She noted that the chair of haematology was recently established with the support of the Federation.
TIF President Panos Englezos said that the Federation proposes to institutionalize and hold the conference on a regular basis at least twice a year due to the conspicuous absence, as he noted, of an independent platform for dialogue and reflection on current issues mainly in the fields of health, social welfare and education.
In his intervention, former Health Minister George Pamporidis, said that the pandemic, through all the evils it has burdened society, has highlighted even more the tragic rupture of the social fabric that exists in our societies, reminding all of us of the importance of the basic issues and values of life, primarily health, solidarity and the need for help and sincere concern for our fellow man.
"The pandemic has shown us that we have lost, among other things, our humanity and it would be important to keep it through all the suffering to which not only health workers, who drew the biggest box, but also the rest of the population, have been subjected," he noted.
Dr. Harris Armeytis said the pandemic is a unique experience, as it is the first time we have identified such a bizarre, difficult and ever-changing disease. "It is not an exaggeration to say that the pandemic affects everyone's life. The pandemic has highlighted different attitudes, perceptions, many of which we are still unable to understand today," he noted.
The pandemic, he continued, is a problem of patient congestion in hospitals and especially in intensive care units. "The problem arises when ICUs become full and all the measures we took from the beginning of the pandemic had a single purpose - to protect hospitals from collapse. If we did not take measures and if people were not vaccinated, we would not have an ICU bed available for anyone and the entire population without exception would be at risk from either COVID or other serious diseases," he added.
In his intervention, Dr. Loizou said the pandemic has disrupted all aspects of our lives highlighted by the health crisis we are experiencing and further exacerbated the problems, structural in the social sector and health systems.
The impact, he noted, has affected and is affecting in an unprecedented and often devastating way everyday life across all age groups and all levels of society.
"For vulnerable groups, the challenges are greater and often unbearable. In childhood and adolescence, the effects of the pandemic have long-lasting physical and psychosocial impacts. The full extent of all the effects on children has not been fully assessed. It will take many years to know the full impact of the pandemic on children," he added.
In his address, MEP Loukas Fourlas said that the European Union was called upon to manage an unprecedented pandemic and that there was no mechanism in place to lead to a coherent management.
"Very quickly we understood that each country cannot deal with the pandemic on its own and so the EU went into a trajectory of implementing a mechanism which was to produce a vaccine within a year. At the same time it managed the vulnerable groups of the population," he added.
In his intervention, Dr Thanos Askitis said the pandemic would teach us that we need to become an organised, functional and efficient team for the medically chronically ill.
"Right now our society needs us to be more active with more educational capacity to act where we really need it and the need to see ourselves more honestly in medical science is the most prominent feature," he noted.
The psychiatric and psychological extension, he continued, has changed greatly in the last two years of living in the pandemic in the medically ill population.
"A healthy society is one that connects communicates, classifies and functions through mechanisms that define the individual in the group," he added.
The President of the Federation of Patients Marios Kouloumas in his intervention referred to problems related to access to health services either because of the barriers due to the pandemic or because of the fear of getting sick and exposure to the risk of the virus.
He also spoke of the absence of infrastructure and structures and a comprehensive planning that takes into account, in addition to dealing with the pandemic, the important needs of the chronically ill.
Source: CNA
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