As Parliament delays finalizing legislation on rehabilitation services, hundreds of patients continue to suffer. Some are changing provinces to receive services within the GESY, while others are forced to pay exorbitant amounts to receive services within the System.
An elderly patient undergoing dialysis, who has been hospitalized for a long time and is about to be discharged, cannot return home due to her condition. She needs to be transferred to a rehabilitation center, which costs a fortune. In addition, a way must be found for her to travel to the hospital twice a week for dialysis.
A patient was transferred to a rehabilitation centre in another district due to a lack of available beds in the province where he lives. The family is having difficulty visiting him and has requested a transfer closer to home, but no response has yet been given.
A relative, who is also responsible for the care of a patient with a serious chronic end-stage condition sent a letter to the relevant government department, requesting immediate state support and full coverage of long-term hospitalisation in a specialised centre that provides palliative care outside the General Healthcare System (GESY), as the family is unable to afford it. The patient is on life support and is completely dependent, while the family, who are low-income pensioners with limited income, cannot cover the costs. They are requesting immediate state coverage of hospitalization in a suitable institution to ensure dignified and safe care.
And the case of a mentally disabled person whose health condition has deteriorated and who needed to be hospitalized in a specialised rehabilitation centre outside the National Health System. The cost is unbearable for the family.
These are just four of the dozens of complaints received in recent months by the Rights Observatory of the Cyprus Federation of Patients' Associations (CyFPA) concerning problems faced by patients who need to receive rehabilitation services. The “source” of the problem lies in the absence of a legislative framework governing rehabilitation and recovery services. As has been written several times in the past, due to the lack of relevant legislation, these services cannot be included in the GESY, with the result that the OAU, in an effort to ensure that the system is not left without any rehabilitation services, will proceed at the end of 2023 to include in the GESY specific services provided by nursing homes that also have rehabilitation departments. As a result, some patients are served through the System, while the rest pay out of their own pockets for extremely expensive rehabilitation services of dubious quality, as they are not subject to any control.
Only three in GESY
“For us, the problem, as evidenced by the complaints we receive from time to time, clearly stems from the lack of a legislative framework, which we, as organised patients, have been calling for for years,” said Charalambos Papadopoulos, president of CyFPA, in statements to Politis, adding that “the three hospitals that joined the GESY cannot meet the needs of patients, who continue to suffer.”
Still pending in Parliament
CyFPA expects that the bill debate is expected to resume before the Parliament's Health Committee in the near future. It is noted that some last-minute changes to the bill provoked reactions from organised patients, which led last July, at the last plenary session of Parliament, to the decision to return the bill to the Committee for a new round of discussions and consultations.
"What interests us is not simply that a law be passed, but that what is passed serves the best interests of patients. This is not the case with the bill in its current form, which, among other things, divides rehabilitation service providers into two categories, A and B," said Papadopoulos, adding that "the provision states that category A will include hospitals that provide rehabilitation services to patients from all areas, and category B will include all others, with a restriction to three areas.
He explained that the position of organised patients is that there should be no distinction between hospitals and clinics, but that all providers should have the right to serve whatever categories of patients they wish, provided that they meet the criteria set by law and obtain approval from the competent committee. “Only in this way will we succeed in the first phase in controlling the quality of services received by patients, and then the way will be opened for the inclusion of more rehabilitation providers in the GESY,” added the president of CyFPA, emphasising at the same time that with the admission of rehabilitation centers into the System, it is not excluded that we will see an increase in centers on a pan-Cypriot basis, which will again work to the benefit of patients.
Concluding, Papadopoulos called on the Health Committee to reopen the debate and bring before the House plenary a bill that serves the interests of patients.