American doctors to begin operating on children in Cyprus

A team of American doctors from Shriners children’s hospitals in the US will begin carrying out operations on children in Cyprus on Tuesday.

The commencement of operations was announced by Health Minister Popi Kanari on Friday. She told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that the move had come as a result of an agreement between Shriner children’s hospitals and State health services (Okypy).

Operations carried out by doctors from Shriners will hence be carried out permanently at the Makarios hospital in Nicosia.

The first operations to be carried out are specialised neurosurgical operations, and these will be performed on children who were examined in January when a medical team from Shriners visited the island.

January’s visit saw a total of 200 children, from Cyprus and neighbouring countries, examined by the medical team.

Kanari explained that the agreement was initially signed in principle back in 2018 through the George and Thelma Paraskevaides Foundation, before being formalised at the beginning of this month.

This agreement builds on a longstanding Shriners presence on the island. Shriners doctors have been visiting Cyprus for more than 40 years, and in that time have examined more than 18,000 children.

Meanwhile, more than 4,000 children have travelled from Cyprus to Shriners children’s hospitals and received treatment.

Kanari explained, “[Shriners’] cooperation with Cyprus started in 1981 … They have established 22 hospitals in the US and in other countries such as Canada and Mexico. Within this network, they have also established centres in Europe and Asia.”

In 2019, upon the launch of Gesy, the free provision of services by Shriners doctors was transferred to the Nicosia General hospital, and now takes place under Okypy’s umbrella.

The new agreement sees Cyprus become a “reference centre” for children’s healthcare in the region, and as a result, children from Cyprus and surrounding countries will receive treatment from Shriners doctors on the island.

Kanari described this as a “very important decision” and said, “it is a great honour for us and it reflects the quality of health services and acts as recognition of our medical and nursing teams.”

In addition to the Shriners doctors, Cypriot doctors will also take part in the provision of care and the existence of this reference centre.

“Cypriot doctors will also participate, as the ultimate goal is for the doctors from the Shriners hospitals to train our own doctors as well, so that they can contribute to the operations,” Kanari said.

She added that a paediatric orthopaedic doctor had already been sent from Cyprus to receive training at Shriners hospitals and said other doctors would be sent in the future to train and “grow the team here in Cyprus”.

Additionally, she confirmed that Shriners International Chairman James E Stolze will visit Cyprus on Monday, describing his visit as “a great honour”.