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Finance Minister Makis Keravnos categorically denied on Friday the complaints made by the patient\u2019s association regarding the potential misuse of Gesy\u2019s funds earmarked for healthcare.<\/p>\n
The patients\u2019 association (Osak) had expressed concerns a day earlier, suggesting that discussions within the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) revealed risks that someone could \u201cput a hand\u201d in and interfere with Gesy\u2019s funds.<\/p>\n
Osak Chairman Charalambos Papadopoulos said this would never be tolerated and underlined that currently, legislation is in place that restricts the use of Gesy\u2019s financials only for healthcare purposes. However, Osak\u2019s concern is that \u201cwith the creation of a huge reserve, others will be inspired to move forward with a legal amendment allowing these funds to be used for other purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to Osak\u2019s criticism on Friday, Keravnos dismissed their concerns, stating that the group entertained a \u201csick fantasy\u201d that the funds could be diverted anywhere other than Gesy.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that the Gesy was a societal victory, with the goal of modernising the state health services organisation (Okypy) and the health insurance organisation (HIO), in order to ensure a satisfactory level of health care within the state\u2019s budget framework.<\/p>\n
However, Keravnos said that while the relevant budget is increasing, the level of services provided is decreasing, adding that the government is concerned about the possibility of mismanagement.<\/p>\n
He said while there is legislation for the gradual autonomy of public hospitals, this is not being implemented.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Keravnos pointed out that audited accounts from HIO have not been submitted yet. Earlier this month, he emphasized that the\u00a0focus should be on improving productivity rather than expanding the workforce.<\/p>\n
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Finance Minister Makis Keravnos denied the complaints made by the patient’s association regarding the potential misuse of Gesy’s funds earmarked for healthcare. The patients’ association expressed concerns that someone could interfere with Gesy’s funds and use them for other purposes. Keravnos dismissed these concerns and stated that the funds could not be diverted anywhere other than Gesy. He emphasized that Gesy’s goal is to modernize the state health services organization and ensure satisfactory healthcare within the state’s budget framework. Keravnos also expressed concern about the possibility of mismanagement and the decrease in services provided despite an increasing budget. He mentioned that legislation for the autonomy of public hospitals is not being implemented and that audited accounts from HIO have not been submitted yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3,121,211,210,64,103,212],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-cyprus","tag-featured","tag-gesy","tag-health","tag-makis-keravnos","tag-okypy","tag-osak"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n