Bone marrow transplant services that were set to be offered by a private Nicosia medical centre, are being hampered by state inefficiency, it emerged on Monday.

The specialised unit at the German Medical Institute’s (GMI’s) oncology centre had been awaiting final approval from the ministry of health for over ten months, medical director and CEO Nikos Zamboglou told state broadcaster CyBC.

Despite meeting all ministry criteria, as well as those set out in recent European directives, the centre’s opening had been inexplicably delayed by the ministry, Zamboglou said, allegedly due to a lack of legislative framework to govern the medical procedure.

This was an inconsistency, Zamboglou claimed, as other facilities and procedures similarly lack a relevant framework and yet operate under temporary licensing from the ministry.

GMI submitted an initial application in May 2023 for the creation of the bone marrow transplant unit, which was approved by the ministry’s advisory committee, which subsequently inspected the premises.
The unit had then been told it needed a laboratory to be added, which was subsequently built, and last April all necessary documents as well as a €550 processing fee had been submitted, with the expectation that full permission to proceed was imminent.

However, the ministry line at present is that this could not be granted after all, as no legal framework exists for these transplants.

This raised a slew of issues, leaving the sizeable costs of the unit’s construction and staffing up in the air, as well as patients needing to continue to be sent (and subsidised) for therapies overseas when they could have received them in Cyprus.

The other procedures for which no framework currently exists include bone marrow transplants using the patients own samples at the Bank of Cyprus oncology centre and Nicosia General Hospital, Zamboglou said.

“No legal framework exists for relief therapies either, nor for MRIs, and yet temporary operating licences are issued by the ministry while the framework is being established,” he added.

He said he had been informed by the chairman of the health committee that the relevant law had meanwhile been drafted and submitted to Parliament.

“There seems to be an atmosphere of restricting the GMI’s operations going back to the previous administration,” Zamboglou added.

Director of medical services at the health ministry Elisabeth Constantinou said the concern for patients was shared and that the ministry supported the creation of centres such as the one at GMI.

Permits to operate a “general medical outpatient ward” at GMI had been given, she said, which has been built to “higher standards which could also accommodate bone marrow transplants”.

“However, from the side of the state, the relevant legal framework is absent [and] beyond licensing of the physical facility, the framework will cover ethics and other issues,” she added.

In statements last year, Constantinou had said the ministry had to ensure controlled development of such facilities.

“We cannot have centres sprouting up everywhere. Transplants must be performed by experienced staff, and these centres must be supervised by a specialised body,” she said in October.

According to the ministry, about 15 patients, including those with thalassaemia, travel abroad annually for such procedures.

Zamboglou said the stalled unit had been internationally recognised as “among the best in Europe”. Fully qualified staff had been transferred from similar units in Greece and an entire hospital wing had been built in line with specifications.

The facility, previously named German Oncology Centre, opened its doors in November 2017 in Limassol, to offer specialised services to cancer patients island wide.