Even more health providers expected to join Gesy by end of December
More health care providers from different specialties will register in the national health scheme (Gesy) by the end of December, the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) in charge of running the system, said on Tuesday.
“The process has been under way for a week. The streamlining of the system will take some time,” said Maria Kithreotou, a senior official at the HIO Maria Kithreotou.
Kithreotou said she expected that registrations by providers would increase by the end of the month.
“We work as efficiently as we can. There is an interest from health care providers to sign contracts,” she added.
So far, 50 physiotherapists have registered with the system, while another 250 expressed interest in joining.
Apart from physiotherapy, as of December 1, preventive dental care, speech therapy, occupational therapy, clinical dieticians and psychologists as well as community health services are available under the scheme.
Commenting on the delay for the registration of specialists’ doctors, Kithreotou said this was partly caused due to the pandemic and the need to complete the contracts remotely.
Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said the addition of services to Gesy was a significant step in upgrading healthcare.
He said a total of 845,000 people have so far registered with a Gesy personal doctor, while 755,347 have visited their doctor, 550,186 have been referred to specialists and 307,686 have had diagnostic tests.
Ioannou also said that over 587,000 people have received prescriptions through Gesy, while 502,275 have had laboratory tests, and 30,000 have undergone surgery. He said the figures provided good reason to press on with determination in solving any problems and making the system work. Gesy provides high-quality health services “without any discrimination or exclusions,” he added.