Medical association vows to crack down on ‘charlatan’ clinics

The Cyprus medical association (CyMA) said on Wednesday it is ready to audit doctors working in unlicensed centres, as police in Larnaca pressed ahead with an investigation into two medical centres offering plasmapheresis treatment.

CyMA president Petros Agathangelou said the association would begin mapping doctors operating in such centres, describing the practice of “charlatanism” as a phenomenon that must be addressed, alongside misinformation on social media.

He said an increasingly complex landscape had emerged, with treatments marketed using terms such as “regenerative” or “anti-ageing”, alongside injectable products sold online with therapeutic claims.

The issue, he said, was not the name of a treatment or indeed its novelty.

“The crucial question is whether what is offered is based on sufficient scientific documentation, is provided by trained professionals, uses appropriate equipment and is applied under safe conditions,” he said.

He singled out plasmapheresis as “an established therapeutic method for specific indications” whose misuse outside those indications was the real concern.

Information campaign

Agathangelou said the CyMA would run an information campaign with the pharmaceutical services to raise public awareness, and urged the public to file complaints directly with the association.

CyMA’s secretary Michalis Anastasiades called for “a coordinated and synchronised response” to what he described as illegal activity by those seeking to profit “at the expense of our unsuspecting fellow citizens”.

George Miltiadou, president of the CyMA scientific committee, said plasmapheresis does in fact “saves lives” when used to treat pathological and neurological conditions.

He said every medical centre’s operating licence and certificates should be displayed publicly for patients to check.

Nephrology society president Andreas Kourouklaris echoed that plasmapheresis is safe “under the right conditions and in the right infrastructure”, and urged patients already receiving the treatment in hospital settings to continue doing so without concern.

Asked directly about the Larnaca centre under investigation, Agathangelou said responsibility for deciding whether it can continue operating lies with the health ministry pending legal proceedings, while the CyMA can examine whether unlicensed doctors are working there.

Told that a doctor at the centre was allegedly using the CyMA logo, he said the association’s leadership was surprised by the claim and had instructed its legal adviser to look into the matter.

He said the CyMA would also review legal gaps with the ministry to prevent cases collapsing for lack of evidence in future.

Unlicensed plasmapheresis

Scrutiny of unlicensed plasmapheresis has intensified since the death of Greek singer Giorgos Mazonakis, who suffered a fatal cardiac arrest during the procedure at an unlicensed Athens clinic on September 9, a case that has led to the arrest and remand of two doctors.

Wednesday’s press conference came as police confirmed an investigative team had been established following a health ministry letter dated September 14, which named two Larnaca medical centres.

A search found plasmapheresis machines at one but not the other. Larnaca CID chief George Charalambous said the team, working with the medical services, would examine the matters raised in the letter, drawing also on an earlier inquiry opened after a 2023 complaint, the third filed against the same centre since 2022.

The ministry said it received information about the centre last Thursday and inspected the site the following day, but said it lacks the power to close a facility that is not ministry licensed, leaving that to police.

A previous police investigation, launched after a November 2023 letter concerning a patient who developed serious complications, found insufficient evidence of criminal offences, a conclusion the legal service reached as well.

That case followed allegations from cardiothoracic surgeon Marinos Sotiriou, who said a patient was admitted to intensive care with extensive thrombosis after undergoing plasmapheresis at the unlicensed Larnaca centre.

Internal medicine physician Vasos Economou said similar complaints against clinics have gone unresolved for years despite meetings with senior officials, including the attorney general, and that one complaint was previously dismissed on the grounds no harm had yet occurred.

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