The Justice Ministry has sent the Cyprus Medical Association a list of doctors who granted prison guards sick leave beyond 42 days.
Yiorgos Pantelis, Director-General of the Justice Ministry, signed the letter, which follows a meeting on the issue with Justice Minister Costas Fytiris and is intended to inform the Association. Michalis Anastasiadis, chairman of the Association’s Ethics Committee, confirmed to philenews that the Association had received the letter and would now carefully study the data. The ministry sent the list so the Association could review the cases and address any issues that arise.
Anastasiadis said the letter does not name any prison guards but instead lists cases of doctors who granted Prisons staff sick leave beyond 42 days. In some cases, guards received up to 200 days of sick leave, and the Association will examine why these cases were never referred to medical boards. Anastasiadis said the Association had also written to police regarding doctors under criminal investigation over the same matter, though it has yet to receive a response.
He noted that when the issue resurfaced recently, it had already been raised at an institutional level, at a meeting between the Association’s president and the Justice Minister. That meeting covered plans to modernise procedures for other types of illness and the functioning of medical boards. Following the decision to task police with investigating possible criminal offences, the Association wrote to police requesting updates on the investigation’s progress. This is so it can activate its own disciplinary procedures if necessary, once the nature of the case becomes clear.
“The procedure is clear,” Anastasiadis said. Under legislation, the Association’s disciplinary council can only impose a penalty after a case has first been investigated by the Association through its own legislated procedures. Court rulings can then be submitted to the disciplinary council as evidence. If a doctor is convicted, the Association appoints an investigating officer, whose findings go to the Association’s council. The council’s full body then decides whether to refer the case to the disciplinary council, which functions as a court and can impose penalties.
As philenews previously reported, the Audit Office, following its report last March on prison guards’ sick leave, sent a letter to the Law Office flagging the possibility of criminal offences by doctors and staff. The report identified a series of findings involving sick certificates issued outside the proper procedure. A criminal investigation was subsequently launched against two doctors and eight prison guards to determine whether they had committed criminal offences.
