Police said on Friday there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges over a complaint regarding a patient hospitalised after a medical treatment.

Police confirmed they received a letter from the health ministry in November 2023 on a patient who required treatment after developing serious complications.

“The study of the case did not yield sufficient evidence to establish criminal offences,” police said.

Police forwarded the file to the legal service, which likewise concluded that there were insufficient grounds to establish a criminal case.

The complaint followed allegations made by cardiothoracic surgeon and co-founder of the American Medical Centre, Marinos Sotiriou.

He said a patient was admitted to the centre’s ICU with extensive thrombosis after undergoing plasmapheresis at an unlicensed centre in Larnaca.

Thrombosis occurs when blood clots form inside blood vessels and block normal circulation.

Plasmapheresis is a procedure that removes blood from a patient, separates out the plasma, and replaces it before returning the blood to the body.

Doctors use it to treat a small number of conditions where plasma carries harmful antibodies or other substances.

It follows strict medical protocols and carries risks, though Sotiriou said the treatment itself was not the issue.

“It is a specific treatment, with protocols, that does actually save lives,” he said.

He cautioned against ‘demonising’ the procedure but said it should never be used outside proper medical protocols.

Speaking to multiple news outlets, Sotiriou said the Larnaca centre opened during the pandemic, offering treatment to patients with lingering Covid-19 symptoms, which has since attracted clients hoping to slow the effects of ageing.

“People who suffer greatly from such cases, in their desperation, seek treatments and centres of this type,” he said.

He called the trend “charlatan tourism”, and said the centre still draws clients both locally and from abroad, partly through social media promotion, and that present gaps in the law make it hard for authorities to shut such places down.

Speaking on Sigma TV, internal medicine physician Vasos Economou raised similar concerns, relaying that complaints against more than one medical centre in Cyprus have gone unresolved for years, despite meetings with senior officials including the attorney general and cabinet ministers.

He said one complaint was dismissed on the grounds that no harm had yet been caused, though he rejected that reasoning.

“Must we wait for someone to die to intervene?” he questioned.

Economou called for an immediate review of every clinic offering plasmapheresis to check which hold proper licences.

He said the treatment has specific medical uses and is not a general wellness therapy.

“Plasmapheresis is indicated as a treatment for specific conditions,” he said, adding it should never be marketed for rejuvenation or detoxification.

The health ministry confirmed officials carried out on-site inspections at the centre before referring the case to police.