The Committee conducted an ex-officio examination of the issue, "Separation" of Paphos General Hospital from Limassol General Hospital, following a recommendation by DIKO MPs Panikos Leonidou and Chrysanthos Savvidis.
In his statements after the committee meeting, Haralambos Pazaros, DISY MP, said that the problems of Paphos Hospital are decades-old problems common to all public hospitals in Cyprus and were not caused by the categorisation into regions by the implementation of the YESY.
Its facilities, he added, are more than 30 years old, and need immediate renovation, expansion and improvement. It also requires upgrading of its medical services and further staffing to make it competitive with private sector hospitals, he said.
He also said that the Paphos General Hospital has its own independent budget, its own administrative, financial and scientific director, its own medical, nursing, secretarial and technical staff and that only the executive director, who has a coordinating role, is based in Limassol.
Since taking over on behalf of OKYPY, he said, projects involving general renovations and extensions have been wheeled and are in the 2022 budget, while in the last two years projects worth more than 8 million euros have been wheeled.
As the Democratic Rally, he said, "we are ready and willing to discuss the autonomy of our General Hospitals provided, however, that their autonomy is made more flexible, more functional, more efficient and that it is truly for the benefit of the Cypriot taxpaying citizen."
As the Democratic Rally, he said, "we are ready and willing to discuss the autonomy of our General Hospitals provided, however, that their autonomy is made more flexible, more functional, more efficient and that it is truly for the benefit of the Cypriot taxpaying citizen.
AKEL MP Valentinos Fakontis[/B] pointed out that the Paphos-Lemesos administrative region "is an overgrown, voluminous situation that occupies half the map of the free regions", as it starts from Kyperounda, covers Limassol, Paphos, Polis Chrysochous and reaches up to Tilliria.
"We consider that an executive management for all the above hospitals in the region is practically impossible to be fully efficient, since there are objective and practical difficulties due to the long distance and the large size of the Paphos-Lemesos administrative region," he said. In order to have flexibility, better organisation, development and planning for the provincial needs of Paphos, he added, "we believe that the Paphos district should have its own administrative and executive autonomy with sufficient staffing to meet the needs of the Paphos district and city."
He stressed that the residents of Paphos are entitled to receive quality and equal health services with the rest of the citizens of Cyprus.
DIKO MP Chrysanthos Savvidis said that the assurances given by the OCYPY during the session that everything is running smoothly at the Paphos Hospital, and that, in essence, there are no logistical infrastructure problems, nor understaffing of medical and paramedical staff, do not convince anyone.
"We ask that the Paphos Hospital should not be a satellite of the Limassol Hospital. We are asking for administrative autonomy and everyone should understand this, he said.
He said there cannot be an executive director based in Limassol and running the Paphos and Polis Chrysochous Hospitals remotely.
He also expressed regret because, he said, DISY does not have a clear position on the administrative autonomy of the Paphos Hospital. "We believed that they would support this proposal but unfortunately we did not have the support," he said.
Mr. Savvidis said that the Paphos Hospital must be improved, but this will only happen with its administrative autonomy.
EPP MP Elias Mirianthous[/B] said that they discussed for the umpteenth time in the committee the problems in the Paphos district hospitals.
Undoubtedly, he said, the issue of administrative autonomy significantly affects the immediate resolution of the problems that have been recorded for years, while the pandemic has highlighted these problems even more. "The issue that remains and we expect on the part of relevant departments is their resolution," he said.
He also said that the autonomy of public hospitals is something that the EPP has said too many times that it should have preceded the operation of the YESY, but nevertheless, not only in Paphos province but in all public hospitals in general, the situation directly affects citizens and unfortunately the services provided do not seem to be to the extent expected when the YESY was introduced.
Therefore, he added, what they expect is to provide answers to the problems that have been documented for years that the public hospitals and the General Hospital of Paphos and Polos Chrysochous are facing and expressed the hope that OKYPY will provide specific timetables for their resolution.
Source: KYPE
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