Doctors who refuse to treat HIV-positive patients ‘unacceptable’

Health Minister Popi Kanari on Monday had words of praise for the Grigorios clinic in Larnaca during her visit to the facility. However, she also used the opportunity to slam doctors in Cyprus who refuse to treat patients who are HIV-positive or who have full-blown Aids.

The Grigorios clinic provides specialised medical care to HIV-positive patients, both at the outpatient and inpatient level, as well as antiretroviral drugs.

“It was a priority for me to visit this particular clinic,” Kanari said. “Everyone here is carrying out crucial work for their patients.”

During her visit, Kanari had the chance to speak to doctors, nurses, healthcare staff and patients.

“Today, I came to listen to everyone’s specific proposals and needs,” she said.

She also described the refusal of doctors working in other clinics and hospitals around Cyprus to see individuals who have tested positive to HIV as “unacceptable” and stressed the importance of addressing this issue properly.

“My visit to the clinic was the first move towards a necessary in-depth discussion regarding this issue.

“We want to find immediate solutions to this problem that has arisen and developed over time,” Kanari said.

Moreover, in her answer to a question posed by a journalist after the visit, she added that complaints moved by staff members of the Larnaca general hospital about the facility’s understaffing and financial issue “are being heard and carefully examined so that they can be solved as soon as possible”.

Speaking after Kanari, the director of the Grigorios clinic Georgios Siakallis said that Kanari’s visit was particularly useful “to discuss the challenges regarding the care of people living with HIV and to address some key epidemiological points, in order to take both local and collective actions to optimise medical services”.

“As a referral clinic, we have some proposals to improve accessibility for all patients. There are many proposals that we will discuss to find common solutions with all stakeholders involved,” Siakallis concluded.