Patients could soon see which General Healthcare System (GHS) providers have been convicted of offences or sanctioned for breaking the system’s rules, under a bill tabled by Kyrenia parliament member Adamos Aspris.
The proposed amendment would require the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) to publish the details of providers convicted of specific offences or found to have committed breaches set out in GHS legislation. Each decision to publish would need to be specifically justified by the HIO’s board.
The published information would include the provider’s name or business name, their professional capacity, the nature of the breach and the penalty or sanction imposed.
It would be posted on the HIO’s official website. If the provider is still contracted to the GHS, it would also appear when patients search for them online.
Providers facing a pending court case for an offence related to their professional duties would also be named. In such cases, the HIO would state that the case has not yet been decided.
The bill includes procedural safeguards, among them the right of the provider concerned to be heard before any information is published.
According to the bill’s explanatory report, the aim is to strengthen transparency, accountability and patient protection, helping patients make better-informed decisions when choosing a healthcare provider.
