Cyprus moves to buy state aircraft for patient transfers abroad

Local healthhioosakpatientsTop News Cyprus moves to buy state aircraft for patient transfers abroad Cyprus Moves To Buy State Aircraft For Patient Transfers Abroad Relevant News Akamas forest park visitor centres scaled back to 8 sites in new tender 9 September 2026 Cyprus moves to buy state aircraft for patient transfers abroad 9 September 2026 Things to do on Wednesday, September 9 9 September 2026 Marilena Panayi 9 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Cyprus is examining plans to buy a state-owned aircraft to fly critically ill patients abroad for treatment, after President Nikos Christodoulides and the Health Minister held meetings with the Ambulance Service, as data show some transfers via foreign air ambulance firms take so long they can exceed medically safe timeframes. Ahead of the launch of the National Ambulance Service Authority, the Ambulance Service has been asked to advance the studies and procedures needed to buy the aircraft. The funding could come from Cyprus’s share of the EU’s 2028-2035 budget, Christodoulides told the Cyprus Federation of Patients Associations (CyFPA/OSAK) at a meeting last week. He is reported to have added that meetings have already taken place and that proposals are expected, with a view to progressing the issue within 2027. Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) records show patients needed transfer abroad for treatment 100 times in the first ten months of its overseas-referral scheme — about ten cases a month — because their condition ruled out commercial flights. Of those, 23 were classified as life-threatening and 25 as urgent, meaning HIO has had to scramble to secure an aircraft at short notice roughly four times a month. The total is expected to reach 120 cases by October, when the scheme marks its first year. Because the air ambulance companies HIO contracts with are all based abroad, arranging a flight takes three to four hours just to prepare the aircraft, assemble a medical team and secure flight permits, recorded data shows. Getting a patient to their destination hospital takes 12 to 15 hours in total, a timeframe that in some cases exceeds what is medically permissible. The service costs HIO an estimated €2.6 million a year. OSAK president Miltos Miltiadous told Phileleftheros it has long been the federation’s position that the ambulance authority should be able to cover patients’ air ambulance needs abroad, since Cyprus is an island and should not have to depend on companies based overseas. As a state, he said, Cyprus must be able to respond quickly to urgent and very urgent cases, and the times recorded in practice fall well short of that. He cited the case of a patient who needed a transplant and lost the opportunity because of the distances involved, saying both HIO and patients’ families endure huge anguish each time an urgent case arises with tight medical deadlines, as they are literally racing against time. Miltiadous added that, based on previous calculations, the cost of running such an infrastructure should not be a major concern for the state, since it would not greatly exceed what is currently spent on buying services. “Nothing can be measured when human lives are at stake,” he said. He said OSAK expects the discussion to move forward in the new year, as it was told by the President of the Republic at their recent meeting. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Akamas forest park visitor centres scaled back to 8 sites in new tender Things to do on Wednesday, September 9 Mostly clear skies as Cyprus temperatures push towards 37°C Cyprus flights cancelled following widespread UK air traffic control outage Cyprus anthropologists rally behind professor in SLAPP dispute UK, France and Canada sanction Israeli West Bank settlements, in support for two-state solution France to ban products from Israeli settlements in West Bank, foreign minister says Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.