Patients’ website guide to Gesy to be created

A new patients’ guide website is set to be created, with the aim of helping people better understand Gesy and how to use the system.

The guide is the brainchild of the Cyprus patient associations’ federation (Osak) and the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO), and will include various questions and answers which concern Gesy beneficiaries.

Potential subject matters include issues such as the cost of medication at the point of use, which the patients of medical specialists have direct access to, which rehabilitation services are available on Gesy, and other similar questions.

Speaking to Politis, HIO spokeswoman Alexia Makridou said the patients’ guide is “a key activity of the organisation” and will be designed to offer information and guidance on Gesy’s services in an easy-to-understand way.

She said “the ultimate goal [is to] create a culture of rational use of health services.”

Explaining the guide, she said it would work in two parts. The first, she said, “includes the services provided by Gesy, the procedures the beneficiary must follow to secure them, and their rights and obligations to Gesy.”

The other part concerns patients with specific chronic diseases.

“Ihe website will be updated on a continuous basis, offering comprehensive information on Gesy services as well as specialised information for chronic patients, including those with thalassaemia, kidney disease and transplant recipients.”

Marios Kouloumas, honorary president of Osak, also spoke to the paper, saying that the website will be “a tool in the hands of citizens, who must learn how to be proper beneficiaries and how to protect the system”.

He described the guide as an “easy and understandable tool, which is a stepping stone in the effort to create a culture of health”.

“We will not change our mentality from one day to the next, but through the dissemination of knowledge, beneficiaries will be given the opportunity to learn what Gesy is,” he said.

The patients’ guide website is set to go live in November.