Address by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL S.Stefanou at a meeting on World Health Day

 

6 April 2022, ‘Journalists’ House’, Nicosia

I welcome you all to our meeting on the occasion of World Health Day which is celebrated every year on 7 April.

With this event, we want to express once again a big “thank you” to you all the health professionals and workers, who, with self-sacrifice and selflessness, under adverse conditions, are waging the battle to confront the coronavirus pandemic to protect us, our families, and society as a whole.

AKEL expresses its appreciation and gratitude to all those who, with conscientiousness and a profound sense of responsibility, serve the huge effort of safeguarding the health of the people. We express our gratitude to all the officials who are defending the good of health and stress the need of providing quality health care, which has never been more necessary.

Health systems cope and treat not only physical and mental illnesses, but also touch on social problems. To ensure and provide quality health care, the existence of a strong health system is imperative. Parallel policies of prevention and social welfare must be pursued, which presuppose the existence of a strong welfare state.

The health crisis we are experiencing globally and in our country too, which has increased inequalities and aggravated conditions of socio-economic insecurity, has provided the answer to the key question surrounding the role and importance of the state and public health systems. Rich and poor alike flocked to public hospitals for COVID treatment and this proved that we need a bigger welfare state, especially with regards the health system, public hospitals and social services.

Safeguarding the right to health is more than necessary. Health is a right and a social good that every state has an obligation to provide to its citizens. The need for strong public hospitals that represent the cornerstone of public health care has never been so evident as now.

The government and state have the responsibility to ensure the provision of quality health services – primary, secondary and tertiary.

The way in which health affairs are managed, but also the quality of the relationship between citizens and the health system, constitutes an important element in determining the level of social justice and culture of societies.

AKEL considers that the provision of health services is a right that must be ensured for all and not a privilege for the few. Especially today, safeguarding the rights of all people to health care is more than imperative.

The provision of quality health care to every citizen is a paramount social need. For that reason, the substantial strengthening of the public health sector emerges as a necessary precondition for the implementation not only of the National Health Scheme (NHS), but also for the protection of society in times of crisis and beyond.

We note with concern the deterioration suffered by the public health sector and the long delay in the process to modernize it. AKEL calls on the government and the competent Ministry to support the reorganisation and modernisation of public hospitals without any further delay, so that they become the main axis around which the NHS will develop.

We express our deep concern about the serious problems observed in the public health services sector, especially during the period of the pandemic. Human life must not be measured in terms of people’s financial capacity. The ongoing understaffing of state hospitals, the lack of infrastructures, the failure to fill vital positions for the operation of state hospitals, the non-modernization of working conditions and lack of job security, the shortages of necessary consumables, etc., all downgrade the quality of the services provided.

It is imperative that the problems encountered be addressed as soon as possible in order to protect and upgrade the health services offered. It has been clearly demonstrated that the first line of response to health problems affecting the whole of society has been left to public hospitals. This is, after all, their social role, to protect the whole of society, and precisely for that reason they must be given all the necessary tools and means to enable them to do so.

AKEL fights for policies that are for the benefit of the health of citizens and society and opposes policies that drive health backwards and transform it into a privilege for the few instead of a right.

AKEL has supported the NHS with all its strength and will continue to support it. Undoubtedly, the NHS changes the facts in the health sector, but at the same time it is necessary to immediately and effectively address and resolve various problems, deficiencies and abuses that are being observed. The solutions that must be provided should be within the context of and reinforce the philosophy, character and architecture of the NHS.

In this context, AKEL has initiated a series of contacts with the Health Insurance Organisation, the State health services (OKYPY), the Ministry of Health and all involved parties, such as health professionals/workers and the organised Patients Association, in order to assess the measures that have been taken, the problems that exist and the solutions that must be promoted.

AKEL will continue to fight for the further upgrading and strengthening of the health system in Cyprus. It will continue to support the public health sector as the necessary backbone of the health services that are provided in our country.

This we believe is the most tangible, the most meaningful expression of our gratitude that we as a political party can say to the people working in the public health sector for their invaluable services.