Private medical centre chief calls for private ambulances’ inclusion in Gesy

Limassol medical centre director Andreas Pantazis on Wednesday called for private ambulances to be included in Gesy.

In an explosive letter written to Health Minister Michael Damianos, he said the current system, whereby private hospitals which join Gesy are obliged to have their own ambulances but cannot use them for Gesy purposes is “discriminatory” and “endangers lives”.

Under this system, private hospitals which have Gesy patients who require ambulance transport request an ambulance from Gesy, which then sends an ambulance operated by the state health services (Okypy).

“We consider it unacceptable and unthinkable to have ambulances and not be entitled to serve our patients with them, expecting Okypy to serve us with daily delays and be waiting hours for an ambulance,” Pantazis said.

With this in mind, he added, “once there is a demand and the state’s ambulances cannot respond, it is the state’s obligation to provide solutions, and solutions by which the patients will not be at risk.”

He then decried what he described as “discriminatory treatment in favour of the state’s ambulance service, which irreparably harms the rights of patients as well as competition”, before calling on Damianos to “intervene to correct this distortion”.