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It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Presidential Palace and welcome today's event, on the occasion of the European Patients' Rights Day, which is celebrated every year on 18 April.
This day, among many other things, brings to mind the European Charter of Patients' Rights, which was drawn up in 2002 by the Active Citizens' Network and very specifically mentions patients' rights, which are fundamental principles aimed at guaranteeing the protection of health and ensuring the quality of the services offered at European level. And we heard earlier these 14 rights, listed in the Charter, which should be recognised and, more importantly, fully respected in every state, not just through fine words and fine statements, but through policies.
And I would like to comment that it was mentioned that these 14 rights are being violated. Yes, there is important work that we have to do as a state, but I think that since the adoption of the Charter, important steps have been taken in our country. These steps have been taken, primarily because of the work of the Cyprus Federation of Patients' Associations (CPA) and it is a shame that you are downplaying your work, because both during my time as Foreign Minister and previously as Government Spokesperson, and now as President, for me, in practice, the CPA is the strongest non-governmental organisation. So, all this has been achieved, with your initiative and work in most of the cases, and I consider the CSTO as the strongest - and we are lucky to have you - NGO in our country.
We have a duty, as a State, to listen to the needs of citizens and to do our utmost to defend patients and their rights.
We have the way, for all these rights that are violated, to address these weaknesses.
Our duty, and we know it very well - personally I know it very well, most of the meetings I had with organisations both during the election campaign and now that I am President of the Republic much more so, were with the OASC with whom we always work collectively - is to make every effort, I assure you, to meet the daily challenges until we get to an event for the European Charter of Rights and these 14 rights, principles, values are not violated in For me this is the most important thing from tonight's event. You know very well that health, together with education, are the two most important priorities of this administration and it is in this context that we are moving forward with the establishment of the Patient Ombudsman in 2024. We have started preparing the relevant legislation, we know more through the discussions we have had and we are moving forward with the establishment of the Patient Advocate, one of whose day-to-day tasks is to ensure that these 14 principles and values of the Charter of Patients' Rights are implemented in our country.
This institution is expected, among many other things, to make a decisive contribution to the upgrading and modernization of our country's health system.
At the same time, as the Government, through the Ministry of Health, we are promoting in the immediate future important pieces of legislation, which are in the final stage of preparation and some are already in the Legal Service. Legislation which involves bold reforms. Legislation that, you can be sure, will provoke a reaction from some. But we are here, as a State, together with you as partners, to deal with any reactions, because all these bold reforms have the sole objective of protecting the General Health System (GHS), which is the biggest social reform to date-it is a blessing that we have a GHS, with many problems, with many challenges, but no one expected such a major reform to work without problems. And it is important because we are here to address the problems, the distortions and the challenges; and also [THE REFORMS ARE AIMED AT] promoting the improvement of services for our fellow patients as well.
On the occasion of my presence at tonight's event, I would also like to publicly thank the OSAA for the very close and very constructive cooperation, but also for the successful organisation of today's event.
The voice of patients in our country, as expressed through the OSAA, but also through the organisations that make up the OSAA, makes a major contribution to the formulation of policies in the wider health sector. In this great effort, both for me and for the entire Government and Ministers, the OSAA is our closest partner. We have common goals, common objectives, and you can be sure that this very close cooperation, which we have developed in this first year of our administration, will not only continue, but will be much strengthened.
We know and fully understand our moral - for first and foremost it is our moral - obligation as a State to work methodically for the well-being and health of all our fellow citizens, and I assure you that we will remain committed to the formulation of policies and actions that prioritise the patient and the safeguarding and promotion of his or her rights.
(PM/EAth/MS)
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