Patients are arriving at hospitals and clinics with side effects from "treatments" and with unknown, unlabelled preparations in hand. Invasive medical procedures are being carried out in unsuitable and inadequately equipped premises, by doctors without the relevant specialisation, or even by people who are not doctors at all. The response from the Ministry of Health and the competent authorities has been to call on citizens to report such practices. But the problem does not begin and end with citizens' silence. Even when complaints are filed, they are either lost in the labyrinth of the services for "insufficient evidence," or drag on for years before reaching a conclusion. Some citizens do report. The question is what the competent bodies do afterwards, and how quickly their reflexes kick in, so as not to leave other patients exposed.
Medication of dubious quality
The seriousness of what is happening was described by pulmonologist and president of the Cyprus Pulmonological Society, Charis Armeftis. According to him, patients arrive at clinics with side effects from previous "treatments." When doctors ask what treatment they followed or which medication they received, patients present preparations unknown even to the medical community, without labelling, with no indication of composition or origin. Doctors are therefore called on to deal with complications without knowing exactly what was administered to the patient. They cannot, as a result, know either the substances contained in the preparation or its possible side effects or interactions with other medications.
Armeftis also raised the issue of the premises where invasive medical procedures are carried out. He described cases of premises on building floors with no lift, or where the lift is too small to fit a stretcher. He even referred to a patient who, following a cardiac arrest, had to be brought down in a wheelchair. "These things are tragic to say, but they happen," he stressed. According to him, every doctor is obliged to practise medicine within the limits of their specialisation and on the basis of international guidelines. When a doctor begins developing their own theories and practices, he noted, they enter the realm of "charlatanism."
Two complaints later
The call for citizens to report such practices could be part of the solution, if it were accompanied by timely investigation and substantive measures. The history of a specific centre, first reported by Politis last week in connection with the case of Giorgos Mazonakis and the performance of plasmapheresis in unapproved premises in Cyprus, however, highlights the limits of this approach.
The first complaint was submitted in 2022, specifically in July, following the publication of an investigation by British media into treatments offered in Cyprus. Ministry of Health officers carried out on-site inspections, and the case was reported to the Police. The centre continued to operate and to carry out plasmapheresis.
A second complaint followed in 2023, concerning a patient who reportedly suffered serious complications after treatment. The Ministry of Health sent a letter to the Police in November of that year, requesting an investigation. The file was subsequently forwarded to the Legal Service, but no criminal prosecution followed, as it was judged that there was insufficient evidence.
Yet the activity did not stop. The same centre continues to operate today under a different name, offering the same services that had been at the centre of the complaints. Both on its website and on its social media accounts, it continues to this day to advertise plasmapheresis as a treatment option for patients with Long COVID, despite the fact that this specific use is not a scientifically established treatment for the condition.
Four years as "specialists"
This is not the only case in which a complaint took years to lead to substantive action. The spokesperson for the Federation of Patients' Associations of Cyprus, Dimitris Lambrianidis, recalled the case of two Belarusian doctorswho had been recognised as specialists in General Medicine on the basis of certificates claiming they had completed four years of postgraduate training in Belarus.
"The complaint was made in 2018, but the two women continued working as General Medicine specialists until 2022."
The case came to light in 2018, following a complaint disputing the validity of the documents they had submitted for recognition of their specialisation. In 2020, the Administrative Court upheld the decision of the Cyprus Medical Council to revoke their recognition. It took a total of four years from the complaint, however, for the Supreme Court to reject their appeal in 2022 and make the loss of their specialisation final. Until that happened, the two doctors continued to practise a specialisation they did not hold, with unsuspecting citizens turning to them daily for treatment.
A further four years followed before the disciplinary proceedings before the Cyprus Medical Association (PIS) were completed and a six-year suspension from practising medicine was imposed. For eight years, therefore, the complaint remained before the competent institutions.
A question of stricter penalties
Lambrianidis acknowledged that citizens have a responsibility to report any dangerous or suspicious practice that comes to their attention. He made clear, however, that the primary responsibility for their protection lies with the State. He said cases had been recorded of patients suffering serious harm from treatments or equipment unsuited to their condition, from medical procedures carried out in inadequately equipped premises, or by individuals lacking the required training and specialisation. In some cases, he added, those providing such services were not even doctors. For this reason, he called for changes to the law so that penalties imposed on doctors, centres or even hospitals that violate the rules are strict and genuinely deterrent.
