The recent decision to abolish the right to free health services (not covered by the NHS) to all civil servants and their family members has led to a "huge and dangerous distortion", says the Cyprus Patient Associations Federation in a statement (OSAK).
Such is the announcement
The recent decision to abolish the right to free health services (not covered by the NHS) to all civil servants and their family members has led to a huge and dangerous distortion.
We regret to note that what the Parliament voted and the way in which the Ministry of Health decided to implement what has been voted put thousands of chronic patients at risk and at the same time has led to unfavorable discrimination at the expense of a large portion of citizens.
Commenting on the general context of the decision, OSAK emphasizes that the separation cannot be accepted even between citizens who work in the public sector. We remind you that the decision only concerns employees working in government services/Ministries, etc. and excludes other groups of public workers such as teachers, security forces workers, etc., but also government officials. However, this is an issue that the Government and Parliament must study and proceed, if necessary, with relevant corrections.
For OSAK, the problems that have been created for chronic patients, current and former public employees, who are literally in danger every day since they cannot secure pharmaceuticals and other preparations which some of them need to live, take priority.
What is more surprising is the fact that the Ministry of Health judges these patients (and their family members), not according to their illness and its severity, but according to whether they are or were public servants.
This results in people who live, for example, with a gastrostomy, not being able to secure the necessary preparations for their nutrition. For these people, the specific preparations are their only food and the cost of securing them from the private sector is huge (€1000 per month in some cases).
Some patients, after the relevant decision for public sector workers, appealed to the Ministry of Health in order to regain the right to free services as chronic patients, as is the case with all other citizens. However, the Ministry of Health, according to complaints received by OSAK, informed them that, although they are chronic patients, they cannot regain the right because they were or are public servants.
If these people suffered from the same condition and had the same incomes/pensions, but were private employees, regardless of incomes or pensions, they could receive their medicines for free from the State.
The OSAK immediately demands the correction of this distortion and the restoration of the right to free coverage to all former and current civil servants who are chronically ill and whose ailments are included in the categories of beneficiaries of free services from the State.
At a later stage, OSAK expects that on the basis of therapeutic protocols and strictly scientific criteria, services but mainly drugs or other preparations included in international therapeutic protocols will be introduced by the Health Insurance Organization to the NHS.
It is not possible for people to be at risk because not all parameters are taken into account when making decisions.
We emphasize, once again, that Health should not be treated on the basis of financial criteria or intentions that have nothing to do with the rights and well-being of patients.