Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 02-12-22

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Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 02-12-22

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

Sunday, December 22, 2002

[01] Policeman's gun stolen
[02] Turkey is 'not European': Le Pen
[03] Schoolgirl attempts suicide over poor grades
[04] Limassol police in anti-piracy raid
[05] Man held after tourist killed in hit-and-run
[06] Free health care, from the cradle to the grave

[01] Policeman's gun stolen

By Staff Reporter

A POLICE officer has reported the theft of his gun after burglars broke into his apartment on the outskirts of Nicosia between 7pm on Friday and 3.30am yesterday. The thieves got away a service pistol, two clips containing 25 bullets, gold and silver items worth Ł1,515, and $188 in cash. CID in Nicosia is investigating.

[02] Turkey is 'not European': Le Pen

By a Staff Reporter

FRENCH far right leader Jean Marie Le Pen made a brief stopover in Cyprus yesterday en route to Lebanon and said he disagreed with Turkey joining the European Union because it was not a European state.

The founder of the National Front party stopped in Larnaca for an hour before boarding a flight to Beirut where he is expected to meet Hezbollah leader Sheikh Fadlallah.

Speaking to reporters at Larnaca airport, Le Pen said he was a friend of the Greeks and expressed hope for a fair solution to the Cyprus problem.

He said he totally opposed Turkey's accession to the EU because the country was not European.

“Turkey is not a European state,” he said.

Le Pen, a highly controversial figure, in 1987 described the holocaust as a “detail of history”.

[03] Schoolgirl attempts suicide over poor grades

By a Staff Reporter

A LARNACA schoolgirl, distraught over her grades, tried to commit suicide on Friday. Police said yesterday the 17-year-old, upset and disillusioned with her poor grades, took a large dose of barbiturate pills.

She was rushed unconscious to Larnaca General Hospital and treated by medical staff who succeeded in reviving her. She has since been released, and is resting at home her family.

[04] Limassol police in anti-piracy raid

By a Staff Reporter

POLICE yesterday confiscated around 8,000 pirated CDs, computer disks, and electronic games during a morning raid at an open market in the Limassol area.

Thousands of bootleg copies of CDs, DVDs, CD-ROMs and electronic games have been seized in recent weeks during a police crackdown aimed in protecting intellectual property rights.

A police announcement yesterday said that 7,713 items of pirated material were confiscated during a 9am raid in a Linopetra open market.

Police said they seized 6,493 CDs, 484 Playstation games, 92 CD-ROMs, 299 VCDs, and 345 music tapes.

The authorities have recently stepped up their attempts to stamp out pirated material after heavy criticism that intellectual rights were not properly protected on the island.

[05] Man held after tourist killed in hit-and-run

By Stefanos Evripidou

POLICE arrested a 42-year-old British man yesterday in connection with a hit-and-run incident which killed 17-year-old Irish tourist Clare Carty and injured her 23-year-old brother, Dermot.

The driver allegedly hit the pair from behind as they were walking on the left side of the Coral Bay-Peyia road at around 10pm on Friday. The suspect, a permanent resident of Cyprus, was driving with his girlfriend when the accident happened, causing his car to overturn and end up in an adjacent field.

Police said the driver had waited until a passer-by stopped on the road before leaving the scene uninjured. He was arrested after police obtained a warrant and searched a house in Peyia and nearby medical clinics.

The suspect reportedly told police that the shock of the accident had caused him to flee the area and leave the victims and his car behind. Police said he tested negative for alcohol when tested.

The Irish teenager was pronounced dead on arrival at Paphos hospital. Her older brother was reported to be in a stable condition yesterday. He is conscious and has a fractured toe. The doctor on duty said Dermot was out of danger and will probably be discharged today or tomorrow.

Their parents had accompanied the two children to Cyprus for the Christmas holidays, and were staying in the Coral Bay area of Paphos.

[06] Free health care, from the cradle to the grave

By Alexia Saoulli

THE ISLAND'S health system is outdated and incapable of satisfying public health requirements, a senior Health Ministry official said yesterday.

Which is why the idea of a National Insurance Health Scheme was devised, said Chief Medical Officer Andreas Polyniki.

“At the moment, there is an oversupply of resources, a separation between the private and public health care sectors, quality insufficiency, absolute absence of protocols and standards and a constant increase in cost of services,” he said.

Human resources, hospital beds and technology are all in oversupply; the private and public sectors do not communicate with one other, leading to patients sometimes undergoing the same examinations twice; there are no procedures outlining steps to fulfil tasks such as operations (an appendectomy could be performed one way in one hospital and another way in a second) and there is no instrument to measure how successful a medical intervention has been or to evaluate the quality of health care provided. Moreover, inefficiencies in the health care system mean the cost of services is on the rise, covering three per cent of the Gross Domestic Product growth, posing serious problems for covering health care needs in the future.

“If people are staying in hospital longer than necessary, this increases costs,” Polyniki said.

Private clinics and state hospitals had a whole host of problems, he added. From understaffing and lack of modern equipment in the former, to under- utilisation of technology and lack of modern management culture in the latter, he said.

“The new system,” said Polyniki, which will be fully implemented in three years' time, “will take care of all these weaknesses and inefficiencies and be based on competition.”

It will be financed through one financial force, providing free and equal health care for every citizen of the Republic, by combining both the private and public sector, he said.

“Even the rich cannot afford to pay for the treatment of serious or chronic illnesses. This way, everyone will have equal access, as well as free access, at all points of delivery. No one will pay when they are need of health care and they will be able to choose whether that care is provided at the hospital or in a clinic,” said Polyniki.

The National Health Scheme was set up to have three social partners: the government, employers and employees. These three sections of society will contribute financially towards establishing a fund, which will buy health care from all providers (private and public) for the entire population. The government will contribute 4.55 per cent of everyone's salary, employees would contribute two per cent of their salary and employers will pay 2.55 per cent for every two per cent their employees pay. Self-employed people will pay 3.55 per cent of their income. Also all other sources of personal income - such as rent and bank account interests - would contribute two per cent to the fund, he said.

“At the primary health care level, the public will be given a list of registered general practitioners (GPs) to choose from. Each person will then be on the GP's list and visit him or her as frequently as they like for check ups. If the GP feels the patient needs secondary or tertiary care, they will be referred to a specialist or admitted into hospital. At this point, the patient will have the choice of whether or not he or she wants this secondary care to be in the private or public sector. And the bill will be footed by the fund,” he said.

Although Cyprus did not yet have a GP system, it was being introduced slowly and by the end of 2005 the public would be asked to fill out a form choosing who they wanted to be their GP.

“We are starting to train doctors that are willing to be GPs. Already, 150 from both the private and public sector have had this training through the UK. After they have been trained, we will introduce the system of continual medical education (CEM). This is to ensure that they are kept up-to-date with medical science's rapid development,” he said. People would be able to change their GPs as often as they liked if they were displeased with the care they were receiving and to visit them as often as they liked, free of charge. The GPs would be reimbursed from the fund, he said, depending on how many patients they had on their books.

“This will act as an incentive to ensure GPs offer the best possible medical care. If you're no good, you won't have any patients and then you won't get paid as much,” he pointed out. The GPs would be self-employed and Polyniki said the scheme wanted to promote joint ventures of GPs working together and sharing the costs of secretaries, nurses and other facilities.

GPs would also know a little bit about everything and get an all-round picture of the patient they were dealing with and so would provide better care than a specialist, he said. “A gastroenterologist might not realise your heart has a problem, but your GP would be able to spot the difference. Just because you are a specialist in one field, does not mean you are in another.”

The same competition would apply to hospitals and clinics. “They provide the care and it will be up to the people to choose whether or not they want to use them. If they're no good, no one will go there for treatment and so they won't get paid. Therefore it is in their best interest to improve the health care they offer.”

And medical prices would be fixed between the fund and the medical association. In other words, clinics would not be able to set really high prices for operations compared to another, because again people would opt not to pay for it, knowing they could go elsewhere for free, he said.

“If you want to go somewhere privately and to pay for it you can. No one can stop you from having treatment abroad or skipping a visit to the GP and going straight to a specialist. However, instead of getting it for free, you will have to pay for it.”

The only time people could skip their GP altogether and go directly to a specialist for free was in cases of “evident sickness”. A broken leg, pregnancy, severe cut were all such cases, he said. Children under 15 would also be listed with paediatricians and not GPs.

In a nutshell, it all boils down to choice. Patients' choice of who their doctor is and where they undergo treatment, he said. “If you're not good, you won't get chosen and in turn you won't get paid.”

At the moment, there is an oversupply of physicians and clinics. With this new system they would have to decrease in number, he said. “The Fund is the employer and the clinics, hospitals and doctors are the providers of the service. Only good service will be sought after.” In short, a competitive medical market would ensure optimum health care.

By the time Cyprus joined the EU on May 1, 2004, Cypriots would have access to free medical care in all European countries if they had proof of local NHS registration with them. The same applied for Europeans travelling to Cyprus. This medical care would be for acute conditions, he said.

“If you have a heart attack in London, you are entitled to free health care there. You will be admitted to hospital and then your country of origin will pay for the bill. The same goes for a tourist from France holidaying here, for instance. If however, you have gallstones and they are causing you discomfort while on holiday, you do not need acute care. Instead they will treat you for the pain and then send you to your country of origin for surgery,” explained Polynikis. At the moment, this does not apply and unless there is a bilateral agreement between two countries, patients have to pay for medical care - acute or not.

Before the new system is fully implemented, the fund's council is setting up a health information system, setting up a database of all providers, preparing a medical audit and quality assurance standards and continuing with training more GPs. The council is made up of 11 members, including government representatives, employers and trade unions. And by February next year, it would appoint its executive director, he said.

So what was the point and benefit of this new system?

“This health care system is curative, preventive, promotive from the cradle to the grave. Whether you are rich, poor, employed or unemployed. It is a system of solidarity,” he said.

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 02-12-22

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

Sunday, December 22, 2002

CONTENTS

[01] Policeman's gun stolen [02] Turkey is 'not European': Le Pen [03] Schoolgirl attempts suicide over poor grades [04] Limassol police in anti-piracy raid [05] Man held after tourist killed in hit-and-run [06] Free health care, from the cradle to the grave

[01] Policeman's gun stolen

[02] Turkey is 'not European': Le Pen

[03] Schoolgirl attempts suicide over poor grades

[04] Limassol police in anti-piracy raid

[05] Man held after tourist killed in hit-and-run

[06] Free health care, from the cradle to the grave

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

[01] Policeman's gun stolen
[02] Turkey is 'not European': Le Pen
[03] Schoolgirl attempts suicide over poor grades
[04] Limassol police in anti-piracy raid
[05] Man held after tourist killed in hit-and-run
[06] Free health care, from the cradle to the grave