A protocol that will ensure the right of children to undergo examinations and other medical procedures in the presence of parents, is being prepared by the Ministry of Health, with the aim of being implemented by June.
The issue occupied the session of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, following an initiative taken by a group of parents raising the issue, since in several public hospitals the practice is to remove the parents when the children undergo medical examinations.
The Chairwoman of the Committee, DISY MP, Stella Kyriakidou, stated that the Protocol prepared for the first time by the Ministry of Health, which will be ethical, sets the goals and procedures to be followed in hospitals and will ensure the right of children be with their parents when medical examinations are performed.
According to Ms. Kyriakidou, exceptions will be the cases in which a child is taken for examination when there is a suspicion of physical or sexual abuse by the parent, as well as medical procedures that will be considered extremely urgent and may not be easy to do in the presence of parents.
The important thing, Mrs. Kyriakidou noted, is that now the absence of the parent will be the exception and not the rule.
According to the Chair of the Committee, the Ministry of Health has already prepared the protocol together with the Office of the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of the Child and will enter into a final consultation with the Pediatric Society, the Child Psychiatric Services of the Mental Health Services, the Association for formulate the final text.
The Commission will return to the issue after Easter and the aim is for the Protocol to be implemented by June.