The Board of the State Health Services Organisation (OKYY) had on Thursday its first meeting, at the Ministry of Health, in Nicosia, with Board Chairman, Sir David Nicholson, saying that they set out their major priorities “but there is a lot more to do”.

In statements to the press, Nicholson said they had an excellent first meeting. Concerning the overall objectives, he spoke about improving the quality of service and access to services for the patients, and delivering the financial stability the health service needs.

Nicholson said that they also discussed their major priorities and that a big issue is the engagement of the clinical and other staff of the hospitals and health services.

“If you want to make the kind of changes to improve services, that we know are required in this country, you have to engage the workforce, you have to work with doctors and nurses and all the health professionals together to improve services for patients” he said.

The OKYY Chairman also stressed that “it is really important for the people of Cyprus that the hospital and community health services are excellent”.

Nicholson further noted that one of the major issues the Board wants to begin with is the recruitment of a management team, which is capable of making the changes to the hospitals and the health service, that are needed to improve the quality of service to the patients.

“We have been concentrating our efforts on identifying the job descriptions for those people and the recruitment process,” he said noting that “we want the best possible people for Cyprus to enable that to happen”.

Health Minister George Pamboridis briefly attended the meeting at the beginning. Health and Finance Ministry Permanent Secretaries were also present.

OKYY has been tasked with the implementation of administrative and financial autonomy in public hospitals, seen as the first step towards the new General Healthcare Scheme (GeSY) in Cyprus.

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