Given that two out of every ten patient complaints concern the Accident and Emergency Departments, the total number of complaints and requests received by the Patient Rights Officers during the first four months after they began their work reached 534. Speaking to Alpha, the Patient Ombudsman highlighted the main issues that have emerged. The quality of care, wait times, the hardships patients endure, information, and access to services.
“These are some major categories, and within each category there are many provisions of the law that may be being violated, so this is an initial summary, an initial picture of how the mechanism is being activated through the patient rights officers now stationed at medical institutions.”
Marios Charalambides – Patient Ombudsman
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
In fact, the data show that 62% of written complaints and 58% of verbal requests concern the public sector.
SEE ALSO: Patient Ombudsman: 534 patient complaints in four months, with wait times and inconvenience at the center of the issue
“We must certainly take into account the volume of activity at a medical institution, as well as the severity and nature of the cases, as these factors can certainly alter the picture. What we’re seeing is that issues arise in both the public and private sectors and, in fact, concern the same categories of issues.”
Marios Charalambides – Patient Advocate
On October 1, another mechanism for handling individual complaints became operational: the District Complaint Review Committees. Their role is to reevaluate a case if a patient receives a response to their written complaint from the Patient Rights Officer and is not satisfied with it.
See the report by Nasia Ioannou:
