A three-hour work stoppage will take place tomorrow, Thursday, at health centres by personal physicians in protest against the way the State Health Services Agency (SHS) and the Health Insurance Agency (HIA) have agreed, the operation of the on-call clinics of the GHS.
As reported in a previous Cyprus Times report, the work stoppage will take place tomorrow from 9am until 12 noon.
As Sotiris Koumas, President of the Pancyprian Guild of Government Doctors (PASYKI), told CNA, "the purpose is not to inconvenience patients, it is to broadcast our dissatisfaction and concern as doctors and as citizens that decisions are being made without us".
Koumas clarified that PASYKI is not against the on-call clinics.[/B] "But beyond that, those in charge had the responsibility three years ago to organise them. They should have organised them on the basis of a structured productive dialogue to ensure the quality of health services provided to patients," he said.
He clarified that "in cities we have on-call and in rural areas we don't," noting that "diseases are not a la carte that show up, they don't have hours, they are not from 3pm to 7pm on Sunday."
"Some things have to be right medically. When there are doctors who are employed, have agreed hours, agreed roster you have to take all that into account. And you cannot give them instructions through a circular since the OAI has said more than a few times that it is not the employer of those doctors who participate in the GHS," he noted.
He noted that decisions on agreements were taken without the doctors. "We have been calling them since March 23, there have only been two meetings, the minister had to call us but there was no discussion because there was no proposal. We have been begging them to give us a proposal, what they are thinking of doing so that we can also give our views. They gave us the proposal eight days ago. We wrote to OKYPY that we disagreed but they went and agreed," he added.
He said that the agreement between OKYPY and OAI on on-call doctors' offices is "a mockery to the medical community and a violation of their labour rights".
This cannot be happening three years after the implementation of the YESY, he continued, whose basic philosophy is equality and universal access to health care and is now being violated by the two organizations' agreement on the operation of on-call clinics.
Koumas said the three-hour stoppage of personal physicians on Thursday follows all the steps set out in the organization's constitution.
Source: CNA
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
