MPs demand answers over unlicensed blood treatment clinic

MPs on the House health committee on Thursday pressed officials over who is responsible for policing plasmapheresis, after hearing that a Larnaca centre ran some six machines without an operating licence and with doctors who lacked the required specialty. Committee chairwoman and Disy MP Savia Orphanidou demanded clarity on the centre’s future. “Will the centres be closed or not? We want answers on everything related to this specific issue”, she stressed. A health ministry representative told the session the Larnaca facility had been carrying out the procedure without a licence, and that the two doctors in charge did not hold relevant medical specilisations. The ministry ordered an immediate suspension after an on-site inspection and referred the matter to police. Following a letter and repeated inspections, it concluded the centre had stopped operating voluntarily. The ministry said the equipment was approved and complied with legislation, but its position is that such treatment belongs solely in a hospital. It acknowledged that the facility was not subject to the regular inspections applied to licensed private hospitals. Patient ombudsman Marios Charalambides said multiple bodies share responsibility, among them the medical association (CyMA), the medical council as well as the police, each covering different aspects. “A huge gap is created when no single authority can fully control whether a service operates legally and safely”, he said. Larnaca police spokesman George Charalambous said the medical services filed two complaints, in 2023 and on January 14, 2026. The first was investigated and sent to the legal service, where officials struggled to apply the law as it had to be decided whether the premises counted as a hospital, whilst the second inquiry is in its final stage. The earlier complaint arose from allegations by cardiothoracic surgeon Marinos Sotiriou, who said a patient was admitted to the American Medical Centre’s intensive care unit after treatment at the Larnaca centre. Police said last month the 2023 file did not yield “sufficient evidence to establish criminal offences”, a view the Legal Service shared. Medical witnesses stressed the procedure’s seriousness, with Alexia Panayides of the nephrological society explaining that it is usually given to patients with a serious clinical condition who need hospitalisation. “This is not a method that can be safely applied in any centre, with limited staff and without the necessary medical support”, she said. Doxa Demetriou, director of the nephrology clinic at the state health services organisation (Okypy), said plasmapheresis is performed in only two of its units, in Nicosia and Limassol. A health insurance organisation (HIO) representative said the national healthcare system (Gesy) reimburses plasmapheresis only in licensed hospitals or day care centres, and only for medical necessity. Private hospitals’ association (Pasin) president Marios Karaiskakis said regulators must judge the true nature of an activity rather than whether a site proclaims itself a hospital, calling for greater oversight on social media advertising. Diko MP Andreas Apostolou said it was unacceptable to raise expectations about treatments not proven to help a given illness, and asked CyMA to examine the personal liability of doctors working in such centres.