More than 2,000 patients have visited Nicosia general hospital’s “fast-track clinic” in the first three months of its operation, Health Minister Michael Damianos said on Monday.

The clinic is operating as part of a pilot programme for patients presenting mild or non-life-threatening symptoms who need prompt medical attention but do not require the full care provided by accident and emergency departments. This aims of freeing up A&E personnel and resources for people with more serious and more urgent needs.

It is open every day between 2.30pm and 9.30pm and is staffed by a doctor and a nurse.

Damianos on Monday said the statistics show that around 20 people are visiting the clinic every day, and added that a parallel pilot programme which has been ongoing at the Paphos general hospital for around a month has seen “great success”.

Given this success, he said, further expansions of the programme are expected in due course, with a new fast-track clinic expected in Larnaca expected “in the coming days”.

He also thanked the state health services organisation (Okypy) and hospital staff for “their great contribution to the implementation of the programme”.

The clinics were created after A&E departments across the island had found themselves overwhelmed by growing numbers of cases.

Medical services director Elisavet Constantinou said in January that studies carried out by the health insurers’ organisation (HIO) show that “people’s use of A&E units is not rational”, and that their symptoms could have been treated at other places.

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.