An MP on Thursday demanded the resignation of the board of directors of the state health services organisation (Okypy), deeming them responsible for the organisation’s spiraling deficits and waste.

The call came during a session of the House health committee reviewing Okypy’s budget for 2025.

The fact that the budget was submitted so late only added to lawmakers’ frustration, with some accusing Okypy of trying to ‘extort’ parliament into summarily approving the balance sheet under threat that otherwise a halt in payments to staff would bring state hospitals to a standstill.

“Let those over there at Okypy wake up, because if they don’t, or if they’re simply incompetent, they should tender their resignations and let others take over,” Disy MP and committee chair Efthymios Diplaros later said.

During the tense session, the legislator called on the Okypy board as well as senior management to step down.

“We feel that unfortunately state hospitals are being led to collapse and a sellout [to private interests],” Diplaros went on.

“We cannot stand idly by and be silent while this happens…some will be judged by history, by what we did at the critical time.”

The MP spoke of a budget of “billions of euros” while at the same there was a “sharp decline” in the quality of healthcare services provided.

Okypy has yet to replace its staff paid an hourly rate, as it had promised. This spending item alone costs €53 million. And despite the high number of managerial staff, the budget includes an item for €1.45 million for consultancy services. Meantime Okypy continues purchasing services from the private sector (€11.7 million).

This year, the organisation will post a deficit of €115.7 million – although Diplaros suspects the real number may even be higher than that.

According to Diplaros, when they asked the Okypy board as to how the organisation plans to pay back what it owes to the health ministry, no one had an answer.

Other issues flagged included the office cleaning bill spiking to €678,000 from €148,000 a year earlier, or the purchase of paper now costing €138,000 – up from €49,000.

Amid all this apparent waste, said Diplaros, the amount allocated for staff training has been halved.

And on the flipside, expenses for advertisements and publicity have shot up to €747,000, expenses for management of warehouses to €486,000, and purchase of passenger vehicles to €130,000.

“So does this mean that, a few years down the line, it will come to the point where they will tell us that, unless we approve one, two or three billion euro for Okypy, the general healthcare system will collapse?”

Citing other data, the MP said Okypy’s capital reserves have shrunk by €122 million, while current liabilities have jumped from €38 million to €463 million.

“If this is not misappropriation of public funds, what is? It’s outrageous.”

For her part, Akel MP Marina Nicolaou said the discussion demonstrated yet again that the current board of Okypy “are not up to the task”.

She blamed the health minister but also the president for this state of affairs.

Nicolaou accused President Nikos Christodoulides of refusing to sit down with Akel to discuss possible solutions.

“Akel shall continue to defend public healthcare and public hospitals, fighting those who wish to sell it out, to privatise it and to alter the philosophy of the general healthcare system.”

Diko’s Chrysanthos Savvides stated that the matter is clearly “institutional” and suggested president might eventually have to step in.

He said MPs are sounding the alarm as “state hospitals are losing their dominant position, with private hospitals gaining a bigger slice of the healthcare pie.”

If one asks the average person about state hospitals, “the answer is, in relation to the expenses the quality is sub-par.

“Common expressions heard from people include ‘I was kept waiting for ten hours at the emergency unit, there were no beds for admissions, there is a lack of [doctor] specialties so I have to go to another town’.”

Dipa MP Michalis Yiakoumi cited three pressing issues needing immediate resolution. First, prescriptions over the phone should stop.

Second, the long waiting lists, where in some cases patients have to book a doctor’s appointment ten months into the future. This was unacceptable, said Yiakoumi. He proposed a new rule obliging doctors to set an appointment with a patient within three months at the most.

Third, there are problems with software – used by doctors – that does not run smoothly.

It’s understood that only the president – who appoints the Okypy board – has the authority to dismiss them.

Whether the calls for dismissal gather steam, remains to be seen. One source familiar with what went on at Thursday’s House committee told the Cyprus Mail that “It was basically just Diplaros calling for resignations.”

The committee will resume discussion of the Okypy budget next week.