President and BoC oncology centre discuss solutions to centre’s financial deficits

President Nikos Christodoulides met with the Bank of Cyprus Oncology centre’s chairman of the board Christos Triantafyllidis on Friday to discuss solutions to the centre’s financial deficits.

The meeting was also attended by Health Minister Popi Kanari and was described by Triantafyllidis as “very useful and constructive”.

The centre is run as a non-profit organisation and offers services under the Gesy umbrella, with Triantafyllidis describing its operation over the 25 years since its creation as “highly successful”.

However, despite this success, an uptick in incidences of cancer, and what he described as an “increasing trend in healing and providing optimal methods of medical treatment”, have left the centre in financial difficulty.

In addition, he said # the fact that the centre offers services under the Gesy umbrella means that “its income is determined by a specific methodology with the result every year being a deficit in the balance sheets.”

He added that the lack of funding at present “hinders planning regarding the expansion of services.”

To this end, he said “the future is very positive so long as we have the right supplies at our disposal to be able to fight the battle against cancer together with our patients.”

He added that he hopes extra funding will be secured so the centre can begin to offer new services.

With this in mind, he said he is “certain” that Christodoulides will promote solutions to the centre’s problem via the cabinet, and said that “with proper handling, [the centre] will continue to improve and continue to provide treatment, relief, and hope to our suffering fellow human beings.”