Cyprus Integrity Forum: Discussion with health stakeholders

The Cyprus Integrity Forum (CIF), an independent non-government, non-profit organisation, is organising a round-table discussion entitled: "Transparency and fight against corruption" that will be held with the participation of all health sector agencies and stakeholders.

As the only organisation tasked with keeping Cyprus society abreast of issues relating to transparency and corruption, the Forum said the Health sector – and more specifically corruption in the industry, particularly when it comes to the general health system (Gesy) – is one of the many serious issues that it keeps a close eye over.

“After a successful event last November where we hosted as keynote speaker Mr Alex Rothwell, NHSCFAs Chief Executive, the anti-fraud unit of NHS, we brought to light the need for systematic and detailed audits in Health matters so as to avoid any corruption tendencies and to have full transparency in the health system,” CIF said.

And so it said it has taken the next step by arranging this round-table discussion with the participation of all the organisations involved in the health sector – these include the Cyprus Medical Association, the Health Insurance Organisation, the State Healthcare Services Organisation (OKYPY), KEFEA (representing the pharmaceutical companies), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Employers and Industrialists Federation, the Auditor General and representatives of diagnostic centres.

“The main purpose of such an event is to document the need to implement Medical Auditing, ensuring Medical Necessity and Medical Appropriateness in the implementation of health systems,” said CIF. “We believe that the positions of those involved in the Health sector are extremely important for the preparation of a comprehensive conclusion and we believe that the presence of all the above organisations is very important.”

It said previous attempts for a joint meeting had not yielded results “due to various misgivings and difficulties; however, we hope for a positive response from all”.

The event has been scheduled for 29 June, between 15:00 – 17:30, at the CCCI building in Nicosia. “We hope that in this new effort we will have a positive response from those involved given their interest in the sustainability of Gesy,” CIF said.

The agenda topics (with an emphasis on Medical Auditing):

1. Control of GESY Medical procedures
2. Transparency in the execution of GESY acts
3. Corruption suppression mechanism
4. Expenses of the Cypriot citizen for health
5. Medical Auditing

In addition to the aforementioned organisations that will participate in the discussion, observers and media will also be invited so that there is full transparency.