Health Minister Michael Damianos on Thursday said he is considering ways to involve the private sector in accident and emergency units in Cyprus.

Speaking to the House health committee, he said his ministry “favours” decongesting accident and emergency units, but did note that the private hospitals which exist at present would struggle to be able to open their own accident and emergency units.

“To have an A&E unit, you must have several specialities. Most private hospitals do not have many beds and cannot have an A&E unit,” he said.

He added that his ministry is therefore in favour of opening more A&E units, but only so long as they can cope, and that therefore, his ministry must examine “how there will be a sufficient number of specialities” of medical staff on duty at any given time.

As such, he said that instead of a private hospital opening a full A&E department of its own, it could provide some out-of-hours services to treat a specialised and limited list of ailments at evenings and weekends.

This, he said, would effectively mean there would be “two different types of A&E”, given that private hospitals at present do not have the capacity to open full A&E units of their own.

He pointed out that since December 23 last year, private hospitals have treated a total of 440 cases which would have otherwise been treated in the public sector due to the “burden” placed on Cyprus’ health system by seasonal infections.

“When the private sector should have cooperated, it did cooperate,” he said.

He also said his ministry is “not negative” on the possibility of devolving hospitals’ administrative autonomy to the district level, but said this must be addressed by the health insurers’ organisation (HIO), as it would also require changes in the way budgets are calculated.

Medical services director Elisavet Constantinou also briefly spoke on the matter of A&E units, saying that studies carried out by the HIO show that “people’s use of A&E units is not rational”, and that their symptoms could have been treated at other places.

The main goal, she said, is therefore to ensure proper triage.

HIO senior officer Monica Kyriacou agreed with this summation, pointing out that last year saw a 73 per cent increase in people visiting A&E units compared to 2023.

This, she said, “is not justified by any increase in the frequency of disease”. She added that the “most likely explanation” is that people are “under the wrong impression” over the purpose of A&E units and when people should go to them.

Private hospitals’ association (Pasyn) chairman Marios Karaiskakis said after the meeting that “mistakes had been made” regarding the operation of A&E units in the private sector.

He said that some private hospitals which did operate A&E units before the creation of Gesy “did not reach agreements with the HIO to accept their operation” and therefore closed.

Now, he said, there are two private clinics with A&E departments in Limassol, while Paphos is “suffering”.

He found himself in agreement with Damianos’ ideas for there to be two different types of A&E units, saying “not all A&E units can have all levels”.

To this end, he said patients should know which specialities each A&E unit can cover.

Asked whether private hospitals which operate within Gesy are able to operate A&E units immediately should an agreement be reached to that end with the HIO, he said there must be “stability, in decisions, conditions, rules” and that compensation must be included.

“Those who will enter the process must know how to develop these units,” he said.

Akel MP Marina Nicolaou said that “specific specifications must be met” for private A&E units to be able to operate, such as minimum staffing levels and the provision of some specialities on a 24-hour basis.

She also called for public A&E units to be “constantly strengthened and upgraded”.

Diko MP Chrysanthos Savvides said public A&E units are working “beyond their capacity”, and also said many hospitals have been suffering from issues of understaffing, outdated infrastructure, and other issues.

He pointed out that the Paphos, Larnaca, and Famagusta districts do not have help from private A&E units and said this sometimes causes “delays of six or seven hours” in people accessing treatment.

He also welcomed Damianos’ plans to devolve hospitals’ administrative autonomy to the district level, saying there is an “administrative gap in Paphos”.