Over 500 complaints made against hospitals in four months

A total of 534 complaints and requests were submitted to the newly established patients advocate office between May and August 2026, with the majority of complaints concerning the quality of care, time and the avoidance of unnecessary inconvenience. “People have started to make use of the mechanism,” patients’ ombudsman Marios Charalambides said on the occasion of the first anniversary of his appointment on Saturday. Charalambides said that between May 1 and August 31, 2026, a total of 293 written and 241 verbal requests were recorded, equating to more than 130 complaints per month. Describing the mechanism as a “useful tool”, he underlined that individual complaints did not represent a complete picture of the state of patients’ rights in the Republic, saying that most of the issues raised concerned “everyday matters”. Charalambides said the collected data did not contain any particular surprises, noting that many of the complaints concerned minor issues which, if left unresolved, could snowball and ultimately create more severe problems. “The issues raised concern waiting times, patient inconvenience, procedures, management and service,” he said. According to the ombudsman, approximately one third of written complaints – 98 in total – concerned the quality of care. These, Charalambides said, did not exclusively concern medical errors but also issues of negligence, service and care. “[Quality also concerns] the correct treatment and management of each case, with professionalism, with proper treatment and always recognising a person’s vulnerability, when dealing with any issue,” he said. Long waiting times Long waiting times concerned the second most frequent category of complaints, while unnecessary suffering and pain constituted the third most-frequent category. “In every case, there must be a framework and some limits,” Charalambides said, emphasising that an absolute time limit could not be given as the latter depended on the case. The fourth most frequently mentioned category – two in ten complaints – concerned the accident and emergency department (A&E). “Some actions have been taken in the past, but it is not at this moment at a point where anyone can say that this issue has been resolved,” he said. According to Charalambides, these concerned patient transfers and referrals, as well as the service provided in A&E departments. The ombudsman also emphasised the importance of keeping patients informed while waiting in A&E. “In these cases, there are often situations where someone could go and provide people with a little information, give them an idea of what is happening and reassure them,” he said. He said that a patient may wait for several hours without receiving any updates, which “certainly makes the situation seem worse than it needs to be”. Information for patients A further category of complaints related to the absence of adequate information for patients, accounting for 71 written complaints. “We need to make sure that what we have informed the other person about what we have made the other person consent to, they have understood,” Charalambides said. He emphasised the need to ensure that patients understand the information they receive and confirmed that there have been cases in which patients consented to treatment without having a clear understanding of what is to be expected. Charalambides said that, as part of efforts to resolve existing problems, district complaints examination committees were set up on October 1, allowing patients who are unsatisfied with the patient ombudsman’s response to their written complaint to take their case to the relevant district committee. The patient will have to submit their complaint and the reasons for requesting a review, following which the committee will then re-evaluate the case within one month of the day the complaint is received by the commission. Charalambides said that, based on the picture emerging in the initial months of the system’s operation, the health sector is dealing with numerous interconnected challenges. “I wish we could press a button and change them the next day,” he said.