Over six million out-patients visited a doctor

Patients who visited a doctor in the framework of the General Healthcare System (GHS) in 2020 amounted to 6,016,478, the Statistical Service of Cyprus announced on Thursday.

According to the official data, during 2020 in the framework of the GHS, a total of 6,016,478 out-patient visits were recorded of which 982,563 were performed in hospitals and health centers of the SHSO and 5,033,915 were performed by private sector physicians who were enrolled to the GHS. As regards the type of attendance, 2,769,908 visits were to personal doctors and 3,246,570 visits to specialised doctors.

In-patient Discharges

During 2020, 59,533 patients were treated and discharged from the general hospitals of the State Health Services Organization (SHSO), whereas 1,045 patients were treated and discharged from Kyperounta and Polis Rural Hospitals.

As noted, the respective data for the private hospitals are not available as they were contracted to the GHS only during the 2nd semester of 2020. In 2020, the bed occupancy rate of the general hospitals of SHSO was 64.1%.

The respective percentage for the rural hospitals in 2020 was 34.0%. Neoplasms have the highest share, 10.3% of the patients discharged from general hospitals, following diseases of the circulatory system with 7.4%, diseases of the respiratory system and injuries, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes with 6.4% and diseases of the digestive system and the genitourinary system 5.0%.

All other disease categories account for the remaining 22.1%, whereas for 37.4% of the cases the diagnosis was not stated.

Deaths and Causes of Death

In 2020, 6,579 deaths have been recorded, including all deaths of residents, as well as non-residents in Cyprus. A percentage of 53.0% of total deaths (3,487 deaths) refers to men, whereas 47.0% (3,092 deaths) refers to women.

The main causes of death were diseases of the circulatory system (28.5%), neoplasms (24.0%), diseases of the respiratory system (9.5%), endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (7.6%) , as well as external causes of injury and poisoning (4.7%). Other causes of death follow with lower frequencies.