Collaboration between Cyprus’ two sides to ensure the smooth supply of medical supplies to those who need them is “now a necessity”, former Turkish Cypriot ‘health minister’ and current ‘MP’ for opposition party the CTP Filiz Besim said on Thursday.

Her comments come as doctors in the north sound the alarm over medicine shortages, and she explained that this issue is a carry over from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Unfortunately, the medicine shortage we experienced from time to time in the post-pandemic period are continuing to persist. This is not unique to us. Serious disruptions in pharmaceutical production are occurring worldwide due to the disruption of the raw material supply chain following the pandemic,” she told the Cyprus Mail.

In the north in particular, she said, this problem has been exacerbated by the weakening of the Turkish lira in recent years, as well as “slowdowns in production in Turkey”.

“The TRNC largely sources its pharmaceutical needs from Turkey, so any production or supply disruptions there directly impact us,” she said, before going on to point out deficiencies in the north’s own healthcare system which have also contributed to the medicine shortage.

Those problems, she said, include that “the state is solely responsible for all drug procurement”, and that there is no drug tracking system in the north, which she said leads to “a lack of oversight and a lack of savings”, while patients themselves are “unable to obtain medication from their preferred pharmacy”.

Additionally, she said, tenders for medicine procurement are not held on time, “making it difficult for patients to access medication and compounding the drug crisis”.

It is for this reason that she said collaboration between the island’s two sides is “now a necessity”.

“The reciprocal supply of medicines which may have run out between the two communities is essential, and healthcare services must be made accessible to everyone in need in this small island nation,” she said.

She added that “healthcare must be a platform for cooperation, not conflict, between the communities”, and that “such collaboration will foster trust and mutual respect between the communities”.

“We need a new understanding of peace in this country, a vision which prioritises people and humanitarian issues without discrimination,” she said.

She also expressed hope that the bicommunal technical committee on health, as well as other committees which she said newly elected Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman will establish, will “work much more actively and produce concrete solutions for the benefit of both communities”.

Doctors had sounded the alarm over the matter earlier in the week, with the Cyprus Turkish medical association saying that it “cannot find medicine for our patients, children, the elderly, and cancer patients”.

“This is the result of the incompetence of our so-called ‘rulers’ who govern us,” it said.

The matter had been raised in the north’s ‘parliament’ on Tuesday night, with Sila Usar Incirli, also of the CTP, having said that “we have known for some time that there has been a drug shortage in this country, even though the health minister has not acknowledged it”.

She also raised another issue related to the import of medicine from Turkey, saying that the country has now “granted the TRNC foreign country status for drug exports”, and that the country does not grant direct export permits for drugs to third countries, further slowing down the export of medicine to the north.

“I see this as a very serious problem,” she said.

‘Health minister’ Hakan Dincyurek (above), however, saw things differently, accusing the opposition of “creating tension in this society by creating the perception that there is a serious drug crisis in the country”.

“If a healthcare professional cannot adjust the dosage according to a patient’s needs with the medication they have to hand, I question them. They should go and check their own qualifications and then tell me something. They could recommend a quarter of a tablet, even though they know they can split it in half, but instead, they say, ‘hear this scream’,” he said.

The Cyprus Mail reached out to Dincyurek for further comment but received no response.