Min. Health: Before the end of his term, ambulances are promoted

The bill for the operation and licensing of Ambulance Services is intended to be promoted before the end of his term by the Minister of Health, Michalis Hatzipantela, while the issue of university clinics will be the subject of a final meeting today and possibly sent to the Legal Service tomorrow with the aim of put before the present Council of Ministers.

As the Minister of Health stated during his morning visit to the General Hospital of Larnaca, the "ambulance bill, which unfortunately has been left behind, I will try to pass this before the end of my term".

Unfortunately, he noted, "in our country there is no bill regulating the operation of ambulances". It was, continued Mr. Hatzipantela, "and this is a bill that has been left behind."

He added that they have done a lot of work in the last 18 months and there are some small backlogs left. "Our goal is to work as long as it takes in these last days so that this cabinet can also go," he said.

Regarding the university clinics, the Minister of Health said that "there will be a final meeting today at the Ministry of Health and I hope that tomorrow it will be sent to the Legal Service and if I succeed it will also go to the Council of Ministers", while on the matter of Advocate for the patient, said that he will be brought before the Cabinet on Wednesday.

Asked about the visit to the dialysis unit at the Famagusta Hospital, Mr. Hatzipantela said he was moved, "because I remembered at the beginning of March, when I went to the hospital quite upset because I had realized how that unit worked. I feel satisfied because a lot of people told me, when you were telling us that this unit would work, no one believed it. They feel great satisfaction. I also saw the patients and they are receiving their treatments in a very decent place and not the place that was before," he said.

Advice to the next Minister of Health

Asked to give an advice to the new Minister of Health who will be appointed by the new President of the Republic, Mr. Hadjipantela said that "there are valuable professionals in the health sector, in public hospitals and we must embrace these people because they have proven themselves in the difficult the work they have done and no one can dispute it."

Asked where the next day would find him, he said that "I will rest, but I will always be interested in the hospitals and our doctors and nurses."

Thanks to hospital staff

Mr. Hatzipantela in another part of his statements referred to his visits to public hospitals, noting that "from the first day of assuming my duties, they were my second home and the doctors, nurses and staff my second family".

He wishes, as he said, before leaving the Ministry of Health, to visit the hospitals. "I will try to see everyone one by one and say a big thank you to them for being by my side throughout this wonderful journey, thank them, hug them and assure them that I will always be by their side" , he stated.

The Minister of Health addressed personal thanks "to two people who really stood by me in the two hospitals". The first, he said, is doctor Adamos Hatzipanagis "who is here with me because we were concerned about what happens in the hospital every day" and with whom he had telephone communication even late at night, weekdays and weekends. "He always answered the phone and said, don't worry, I'll be there to see with my own eyes. We had quite a few emergencies with young people and the doctor was informed and at any time of the day he came to see what was going on," he noted.

Mr. Hatzipantela also thanked Dr. Amalia Hatzigianni. "Amalia, when we took over the Ministry in difficult circumstances with the coronavirus, we started the day with the first phone call to Riana in the ambulances and the second to Amalia who was always by our side. He was always concerned about getting us through the tough times and we encouraged each other that we would make it. A big thank you from the State to both of them," he said.

Source: KYPE