Statement by the General Secretary of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou after the meeting with the Minister of Health

 

19 June 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

I would like to thank the Minister of Health for the meeting we had. We admittedly had a very comprehensive and constructive discussion on health issues and especially on the National Health Scheme (GESY). You know very well that AKEL is a strong supporter of the GESY. We fought for this system to exist and we will continue to struggle to develop and deepen it, to address any problems it faces, because there are problems and they must be tackled.

That’s what we discussed with the Minister of Health. We always start from the need to support public hospitals, which in our understanding represent the backbone of the GESY. We are of the opinion that after the coronavirus pandemic, during which public hospitals supported the economy’s effort to address the pandemic, the period of financial support for the Public Hospitals must be extended.

At the same time, however, the GESY must also present a roadmap for the development of Public Hospitals so that they can in practice, as I have said, constitute the backbone of the GESY.

There is an urgent need to work on capacity planning, that is, to record the needs and prospects, as to what Cyprus needs in the health sector so that we as a state know where we need to invest, what we need to do in order to rationally address the various challenges and prospects in order to ensure a quality GESY that provides equal quality access to all.

We are concerned about this mass descent of various funds and others to set up hospitals in Cyprus. We want the GESY to remain on a correct basis. Its philosophy and architecture must not change. There should be this capacity planning to know how the state will move towards meeting the needs.

AKEL will soon hold a press conference in which we will submit our positions on all the important and particular issues of concern to the health sector.

We have agreed with the Minister to be in touch, we need this contact, mutual information and consultation, because it is through cooperation that we can support the GESY, give it a perspective and develop it further.