The House on Thursday passed a law allowing only doctors enrolled with the general health system (Gesy) to issue prescriptions for medicines covered by the system.

The law – a government bill fast-tracked to parliament – passed with 37 votes for, three against.

It stipulates that only doctors and dentists contracted with the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) – the agency that runs Gesy – may issue prescriptions or referrals to patients within the Gesy system.

The need to amend the law came up after a landmark ruling by the administrative court earlier this month. It overturned a previous decision by the HIO, and allowed a patient to obtain medication under Gesy with a prescription from a non-Gesy doctor.

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The issue had gone to court after the HIO rejected a patient’s request for reimbursement, arguing that only prescriptions from Gesy-affiliated doctors were eligible. However, the administrative court ruled that the law did not explicitly require prescriptions to be issued by a Gesy doctor, as long as the medication itself was included in the system’s approved list and dispensed by a participating pharmacy.

The court’s decision at the time highlighted a crucial distinction in the law: while personal and specialist medical services within Gesy are provided by registered doctors, the regulation did not specify that prescriptions should come exclusively from these practitioners.

Instead, the law had stated that prescriptions must be issued by a “doctor” or “dentist” without requiring them to be affiliated with Gesy. The ruling confirmed that only pharmacists are mandated to be registered with Gesy when dispensing covered medicines.

The judgment had also clarified that patients who chose to consult private doctors outside Gesy must bear the consultation cost themselves. However, if the prescribed medication is included in the Gesy list and dispensed by a participating pharmacy, the cost of the medicine should still be covered by the system. The court found that the HIO’s interpretation of the law had added restrictions that were not originally stated in the legislation.

Reacting to this ‘loophole’ in the legislation and to the court’s recent ruling, the government acted swiftly to amend the law.

On the House floor on Thursday, an intense debate took place with some MPs disagreeing and others agreeing with the reasoning behind amending the law.

Akel’s Giorgos Loukaides, who voted for the amendment, said that if left unchecked prescriptions would lead to abuses, a further spike in expenditures on Gesy and the eventual departure of doctors from the national health system.

Defending the utility of Gesy, the MP said that household spending on healthcare halved between 2016 and 2023.

Almost inevitably, the discussion turned to the very nature of Gesy itself.

Dipa deputy Alekos Tryfonides spoke about the ballooning Gesy budget.

“When are we going to talk about this ‘party’?” he remarked.

The conversation on Gesy should primarily focus on what the patient gets out of it, stressed Tryfonides.

“If a patient needs nine months to get a doctor’s appointment, how do we solve this problem?”

And he called on the health minister and the HIO to “assume their responsibilities”.