Re-engineering the Cypriot healthcare service system

Elena Pallari,George Samoutis,Anthony Rudd

doi:10.1186/s12913-020-5048-3

Abstract

BackgroundThe Cypriot healthcare system has undergone a number of major transformations since the induction of the Republic of Cyprus in the European Union over 10 years ago. Currently Cyprus is undergoing a major reform, namely the introduction of a primary care driven national healthcare system. The aim of the study was to assess the existing state of training, support, quality, guidelines and infrastructure towards a better healthcare system in Cyprus.MethodsThis is a mixed-methods study combining statistical data until October 2016 and workshop discussions delivered in Cyprus in November 2015. We used anonymised data provided: (1a) by the Cyprus Medical Association of all registered medical doctors up to October 2016; (1b); by the Ministry of Health (MoH) Health Monitoring Unit up to October 2016; (2) during a workshop organised with representatives from the Royal College of Physicians, the European Commission and the Health Insurance Organization.ResultsThe gender ratio of men over women is disproportionate, with over 85% of the medical doctors undertaking their training in Greece, Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries, while the current record does not hold a relevant specialty information for 4 out of 10 doctors. The results show lack of statutory inspection systems, application of revalidation principles or implementation of peer-review clinical services on the island. There are eight proposed recommendations made by the workshop participants towards the transformation of the Cypriot healthcare system and the development of the Cyprus Quality Improvement Institute. These are aimed at addressing gaps in quality of care, adherence to clinical guidelines and implementation of audits, development of doctors’ revalidation and peer-review of clinical services, accreditation of service implementation, establishment of a statutory inspection system as well as the set-up of an incentives program as part of the general healthcare system (GHS) of Cyprus.ConclusionsCurrent efforts for the implementation of the new GHS in Cyprus call for adequate training and support of the medical workforce, transparent and safer quality of care provision through the implementation of clinical guidelines and capacity-building infrastructure.

Highlights

The Cypriot healthcare system has undergone a number of major transformations since the induction of the Republic of Cyprus in the European Union over 10 years ago
The economic system underwent systemic changes and fluctuations and there is still work in progress towards a transformative Cypriot General Healthcare System (GHS) that will provide universal coverage to the Cypriot population through the merging of public and private health resources. In light of these reforms, we set to investigate the current capacity of the Cypriot healthcare to gather evidence-based suggestions and recommendations for the future reconfiguration of the Cypriot healthcare infrastructure in two ways: (1a) To understand the gender ratio and country of study of the current medical workforce registered on the official record; (1b) To establish the percentage attribution between the different medical specialties and whether this meets the needs of the Cypriot population; and (2) To establish a baseline on the current state of clinical guidelines and clinical audit development in Cyprus
In 2014, a decision was undertaken to collaborate with NICE (UK) and HQIP (UK) in order to develop local expertise on clinical guidelines and audit: the projects were undertaken with the funding support of the European Commission

Summary

Introduction

The Cypriot healthcare system has undergone a number of major transformations since the induction of the Republic of Cyprus in the European Union over 10 years ago. The economic system underwent systemic changes and fluctuations and there is still work in progress towards a transformative Cypriot GHS that will provide universal coverage to the Cypriot population through the merging of public and private health resources In light of these reforms, we set to investigate the current capacity of the Cypriot healthcare to gather evidence-based suggestions and recommendations for the future reconfiguration of the Cypriot healthcare infrastructure in two ways: (1a) To understand the gender ratio and country of study of the current medical workforce registered on the official record; (1b) To establish the percentage attribution between the different medical specialties and whether this meets the needs of the Cypriot population; and (2) To establish a baseline on the current state of clinical guidelines and clinical audit development in Cyprus.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion