Zanettou: Physiotherapists claim their earnings from OAU

With a two-hour work stoppage from 0900-1100, the physiotherapists are asking to be paid as agreed with the Health Insurance Organization (OHI) and are claiming their earnings, the President of the Pan-Cypriot Association of Physiotherapists Irini Zanettou told KYPE.

He said the board of physical therapists he took over in January held a series of meetings with the OAU with its last meeting on August 2.

"We made our request that we want to be paid for our services, as was originally agreed upon. Physiotherapists' pay has been reduced by 15% for a year, due to an increase in benefits offered by the OAU to groups of patients, without any measure to protect our pay," he noted, while requesting that the 2023 budget be discussed with today's data.

As of August 2, he continued, we have had no response from OAU other than an email from an operator after the two-hour work stoppage was announced that did not answer any of our questions.

"We believe that the OAU does not respect us, perhaps it does not understand our position in the NHS and the importance of physiotherapy, so we went on a two-hour work stoppage in order to hear our requests but also for the Organization's complete indifference", he added.

Mrs. Zanettou mentioned that in 2020 the physiotherapists joined the NHS. "As an Association, we considered that it would be unheard of for a General Health Plan to be made without physiotherapy in it, and we were in fact in favor of GeSY because we wanted every citizen to have access to physiotherapy", he pointed out.

We were and are supporters of GeSY, he continued, we proved it in practice because we were one of the first branches to join GeSY with a specific agreement at the time.

"We want people to get the treatments they should get, but not for the physiotherapists to pay for them. We are healthcare professionals, we neither engage in political games nor are we interested in political games. We claim our earnings", he added.

Source: KYPE