SHSO: Healthcare cost at €100 mln

Case fatality rate due to COVID in Cyprus is at 0,46% while the healthcare cost for the pandemic hit 100 million euro, according to Christis Loizides, Executive Head of State Health Services Organization (SHSO).

Speaking during a press conference on Tuesday, Loizides said that since the pandemic broke out, more than 6,000 patients were hospitalized, of whom 600 in ICUs.

He said that SHSO in a short period of time had to restate its infrastructure and to install more than 300 beds in COVID wards including ACUs and to staff 65 new ICUs for COVID.

Loizides said that in just 28 days a new ICU in Nicosia General Hospital was set up and the ICU at Famagusta Reference Hospital was extended.

He referred to an action plan for the development of more than 300 beds in COVID wards in all hospitals across the island and 65 in the ICUs and reassured that the Organization remains in high alert to face all challenges.

According to Loizides since January 2019, SHSO hired 1,022 people, 245 doctors and 371 nurses. The rest are administrative staff and paramedical personnel.

There are currently 767 doctors at SHSO and 3,555 nurses, the biggest number of nurses the country ever had in SHSO infrastructure. This amounts to 72% of all nurses on the island.

SHSO Executive Head also referred to the plans for further modernization of the public hospitals and the setup of new units, such as the hemodialysis unit at Paphos Hospital, the new Athalassa Hospital, the MRI unit at Limassol Hospital and the new thalassemia unit at Makario Hospital.

He said that the total amount for new projects the next three years is at 200 mln.

He referred to issues related to better services to patients, saying that a lot has been done and that there is a business plan for the fiscal autonomy of the Organization, the digitalization of the patients` files and the online appointments. Loizides said however that the hospitals cannot close at 3 in the afternoon and that this is an outdated practice that needs to change.