Patient Ombudsman Marios Charalambides intervenes in the public dispute between two hospitals, following a complaint by DISY MP Giorgos Pamboridis that a private clinic and Nicosia General Hospital “turned away” a woman experiencing postoperative complications, under the pretext of a lack of beds.
As Mr. Charalambides stated in a post, “care knows no ‘jurisdictions,’” calling on the two hospitals “to immediately put an end to this public dispute.”
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
“When a patient is in need, there is no room for debate over ‘who is responsible for treating them.’ There is only the obligation of everyone to ensure that they receive the necessary care,” the Patient Advocate added, among other things.
He also describes as absolutely unacceptable “the fact that, at a time when a person is in a state of emergency, their case is turned into a public dispute between organizations.”
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Mr. Charalambidis’s statement in its entirety:
In light of the public dispute that has arisen between two hospitals regarding the handling of a patient who experienced complications following surgery, I offer the following.
In such a case, the first and only question that should concern everyone is this: how to ensure, without delay and without unnecessary procedural obstacles, that the patient receives appropriate care.
It is absolutely unacceptable that, at a time when a person is in a state of emergency, their case is turned into a public dispute between organizations, and we are forced to listen to statements from both sides about who was or was not responsible for taking them in.
The patient cannot and should not be caught in the middle of any dispute between hospitals. He bears no responsibility for this. They are not a party to the dispute. And they cannot be made to bear, either directly or indirectly, the consequences of a disagreement regarding the responsibilities of healthcare providers.
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Which hospital bore ultimate responsibility, what protocols were followed, whether there was proper communication, and whether the prescribed procedures were followed—these are not issues that should be resolved through public announcements and the shifting of blame.
And it is precisely here that we must recall something far more essential: that at the heart of every decision and every procedure in the healthcare system must be the patient and their right to receive appropriate care, in a timely, safe, dignified, and continuous manner.
Public conflict between healthcare providers, especially when it concerns an incident that is still in the news, sends an extremely negative message to the public. It creates the image of a system in which, instead of everyone working in coordination to protect the patient, they first seek to assign blame.
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This cannot be the image we want for our healthcare system.
For this reason, I call on the two hospitals to immediately end their public dispute and focus on the heart of the matter: providing safe and uninterrupted care for this particular patient and ensuring that a similar incident does not happen again.
When a patient is in need, there is no room for debate over “who is responsible for treating them.” There is only the obligation of everyone to ensure that the patient receives the necessary care.
Protecting patients’ rights cannot be a matter of public relations. It is an institutional, legal, and ethical obligation of all those who serve in the healthcare system.
The patient must be the first, the last, and the only one at the center of attention.
