As the state doctors’ strike entered its second day on Wednesday, the auditor-general has agreed with the findings of an independent analyst which had determined that no more than a €2.5 million payout to doctors for 2023 was justifiable.
The 48-hour public doctors’ strike was called after an impasse between doctors and state health services organisation (Okypy).
Okypy had announced it had taken measures to ensure patients’ lives were not risked, however, non-urgent treatments were postponed and a skeleton “safety” staff was operating.
Compensation for 2023-2027 based on an incentives system for “special doctors”, which includes those assigned to remote locations, is the cause of the dispute, with doctors insisting, despite mounting criticism, that they are owed much more than what they had been offered.
Doctors had insisted on €4.5 million for 2023, while Okypy had initially offered them €4.1m in July, before the independent analyst found that they were due just €2.5m.
Okypy had insisted the matter was shelved but doctors disagreed and called for the matter to be re-addressed.
Auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou, meanwhile, requested clarifications from Okypy regarding the additional amounts claimed but nonetheless found that payment beyond €2.5m were not justified, according to reports.
Okypy incomes for 2023 had not not reached the set target stipulated in a 2020 agreement between the organisation and the doctors’ unions, according to a report in Politis, and as such, doctors should not receive any amount beyond the incentives granted them across the board of €1,850 euros per month per doctor.
The original agreement made in 2020, had concerned 650 specialists, however, conditions have changed since then.
Additional specialists had been inducted into Gesy, only some of whom are under Okypy. By 2023 the number of specialists had risen to 716, spokesman for the legal service Marios Petrides told the daily.
The rationale behind the initial incentive had been to prevent the flight of specialists away from public hospitals, and this has been achieved.
However, the added goal – an increase in Okypy revenues – had not. The real income of Okypy was below €305m and therefore any additional pegged incentives could not be activated, Petrides said.
Aside from the 2020 formula, the doctor’s agreement moving forward must fall in line with Okypy’s economic capacities and its self-financing status, he said.
The audit service requested clarification as to whether any further arrangement had been made, for doctors to receive individual incentives, if they reached their financial goals.
Based on advance budgeting Okypy was to have received state sponsorship for 2023 to the tune of €27.8m but the real number came to €53.6m for 2021 and to €12.6m for 2022, Petrides said.
However, it emerged that health ministry general director, Christina Yiannaki, in a letter to Okypy’s general executive director on November 18, had informed the organisation that it owed the ministry net debts amounting to €1.29 billion, for the period of January 1, 2019 through September 30, 2024, to cover staff seconded from the ministry.
Okypy spokesman Charalambos Charilaou disputed this claim, saying that Okypy could not be held responsible for costs incurred in 2019 as it had not started receiving revenues from inpatient treatments until June 2020.
Deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou also played up the issue of Okypy’s financial viability, telling the CyBC on Wednesday that the organisation needed to “increase its competitiveness and be able to operate in [such an] environment”.
“The state is willing to act as a mediator and honour logical demands,” he said, speaking to the CyBC.
Health Minister Michalis Damianos said previously said “his door was open” and that he was certain a solution could be found, as “the only losers in the situation were the patients”, while patient organisation Osak also slammed the strike.
In statements at the Nicosia general hospital, on Tuesday, head of the public doctors’ association, Sotiris Koumas, said that they had been “forced to take measures” by their employers, which include the ministry of health and Okypy.
President Nikos Christodoulides on Monday intervened urging an end to the strike, while stating that the state “would not bow to pressure”.
Head of the Pasydy doctors’ union Moses Lambrou, meanwhile, accused the media and others of a “concerted attack” to paint the doctors’ demands in a bad light, and said what was at stake was the “dignity and credibility of all those involved in negotiations”.