Cyprus’s parliament has passed legislation establishing a National Ambulance Authority, with state ambulances to be reserved exclusively for life-threatening emergencies while private providers take over non-emergency transfers within the General Healthcare System (GHS) framework.
The current Ambulance Service handles over 95,000 transfers a year, more than 45,000 of which are non-emergency — covering bedridden patients travelling to hospitals or diagnostic centres and transfers between medical facilities.
The new law allows private ambulance providers to be licensed and assessed against set criteria to handle these cases, freeing state ambulances for genuine emergencies.
The legislation also ends the Ambulance Service’s operation under the Organisation of State Health Services (SHSO), to which it had been transferred “temporarily” after the GHS was introduced.
Under transitional provisions, the handover to the National Ambulance Authority will take place on 31 December 2026.
SHSO has already publicly declared its intention to seek compensation. Executive director Kypros Stavridis told parliament the organisation had invested “significant resources” in the service, and that investments covering equipment, staff, infrastructure and operating costs “must be calculated and compensated.”
The National Ambulance Authority will be responsible for planning, organising, coordinating and supervising all ambulance services, evaluating and certifying the suitability and safety of all ambulances, and operating an Accident and Emergency Management Centre for coordination in emergencies.
It will maintain three registries — covering service providers, ambulances and paramedics — with registration a prerequisite for lawful operation. The authority will have powers of inspection and the ability to impose sanctions for violations, with requirements set for training, professional competence and protocol compliance.
The law also provides for an Operational Call Coordination Centre to manage calls and dispatch ambulances, and an Advisory Committee on Emergency Pre-Hospital Healthcare with a purely advisory role.
An amendment proposed by AKEL — which would have allowed the public authority to continue handling non-emergency cases rather than passing them to the private sector — was rejected.
