GeSY limits hit patients’ wallets: why people in Cyprus are paying €25 for a doctor’s visit

A visit to a specialist by referral costs €6, but people in Cyprus are increasingly having to pay €25 or wait weeks for an appointment. The Cyprus Federation of Patients’ Associations (OSAK) carried out a large-scale survey and found where the system is failing.

What is the problem?
The Health Insurance Organisation (OAY) has set monthly limits for family doctors on issuing referrals. Once the limit is reached, the doctor either postpones the patient’s visit until the next month or suggests going directly — but then for €25 instead of €6. OSAK called this practice unacceptable.

Absurd bureaucracy:
Doctors are overloaded with paperwork, as by law a family doctor does not have the right to prescribe many basic medications. To simply renew a prescription, patients have to be sent to specialists:
• For migraines — to a neurologist.
• For diabetes and thyroid conditions — to an endocrinologist.
• For osteoporosis — to a pulmonologist (even for a basic vitamin D test, the family doctor does not have access).

What the statistics say (a survey of 1,337 GeSY beneficiaries):
• 78% are satisfied with communication with their family doctors.
• 13% encountered a direct refusal to issue the needed referral.
• 11% are calling for easier access to specialists.

The OAY acknowledged the problem. The head of the organisation, Efi Kammitsi, agreed that GeSY needs to evolve, and the agency is now working with associations to find a compromise that would decouple doctors’ salaries from the number of referrals they issue.