Cyprus has begun implementing instructions issued days ago by Health Minister Neophytos Charalambides. The instructions call for mapping medical centres across the island that carry out high-risk invasive procedures, according to Health Ministry sources.
Ministry officials are deciding how the mapping will be carried out and who will be responsible for it, in internal meetings currently under way, the sources said, adding that they expect results before too long. Where necessary, the Ministry is also in contact and coordination with the Cyprus Medical Association (CyMA), the same sources said.
Under current legislation, responsibility for inspecting private hospitals lies with the Health Ministry’s Registrar of Private Hospitals. CyMA, meanwhile, issues practising licences to doctors in Cyprus based on documents issued by the Ministry’s Medical Council, after reviewing the certificates submitted by each doctor seeking to practise in Cyprus.
CyMA, meanwhile, has begun sending notices to its members asking them to help identify people practising medicine without a licence, as well as poor practices. Under existing legislation, CyMA refers cases it identifies as needing investigation to the relevant state services and to police.
CyMA said it would wait for updates from the Ministry as issues affecting its own responsibilities arise during the mapping process, so that it can pursue the appropriate procedures.
According to the same sources, CyMA has, since its recent administrative restructuring, been working in a more organised way to implement decisions made by its Council, applying measures aimed at addressing individual cases that have at times tarnished the image of the medical profession in Cyprus.
In 2025, CyMA had also run an awareness campaign, in cooperation with the Health Ministry, on cosmetic medical procedures carried out by practitioners without medical qualifications or a licence to practise medicine.
CyMA is also calling on the public to submit official, specific complaints about such cases, so that complaints can be properly substantiated. According to sources, some cases referred to CyMA’s disciplinary bodies have previously come to nothing because the necessary testimony was ultimately unavailable.
CyMA’s Council is expected to examine, at its regular meeting on October 8, legal issues around managing such cases, institutional and procedural questions relating to coordination with services and bodies for investigation purposes, and plans for measures to protect patients.
(Information from Cyprus News Agency)
