A recent comprehensive survey has illuminated widespread and persistent operational failures within the General Health System's (GHS) IT infrastructure, prompting grave concerns among medical practitioners about its detrimental impact on patient care delivery across Cyprus. The findings, released by the Cyprus Medical Association (CMA) following a two-month investigation, reveal that the digital backbone of the GHS is not only underperforming but is actively hindering the ability of doctors to provide timely and effective treatment.
The survey, which canvassed 728 physicians spanning all medical disciplines contracted with the GHS, underscores a pervasive sense of frustration and inadequacy. A staggering 91% of respondents reported experiencing system outages or complete unavailability, with disruptions occurring with alarming frequency – a significant proportion are facing these technical impediments on a weekly, if not daily, basis. These outages, which can persist for up to four hours at a time, cripple essential administrative and clinical functions, including the registration of patient visits, the issuance of prescriptions, the generation of referrals, and the processing of other vital services fundamental to patient management.
The ramifications of these systemic weaknesses are far-reaching. A substantial 65% of doctors indicated that the recurring technical issues are directly contributing to appointment delays, the accumulation of patient backlogs, and an overall inability to offer prompt medical attention. This forces a considerable 80% of physicians to regularly extend their working hours, labouring outside of standard professional times simply to compensate for lost productivity caused by the malfunctioning IT system. The cumulative effect is profound, with 54% of surveyed doctors asserting that these persistent delays have a serious and negative impact on their professional workload and efficacy.
Beyond outright system unavailability, a litany of technical glitches plague the daily operations of healthcare professionals. Eighty-two percent of doctors reported encountering a range of issues, from disconnections and erroneous data displays to system freezes. Furthermore, a considerable 62% indicated that the system's performance is consistently sluggish, exacerbating the problem of lost time. Adding to the operational burden, 86% of respondents described the system’s embedded medical protocols as being opaque and excessively bureaucratic, further complicating the efficient execution of medical tasks. Consequently, only a modest 46% of doctors rated the system positively for its ease of use, while a mere 61% conceded that it contributes to the quality of services provided, albeit to a certain extent.
The core functionalities most affected by these malfunctions include accessing crucial patient medical histories, prescribing appropriate medication, generating necessary referrals to specialists, logging into the system to commence work, and the ability to upload or review vital test results. When these digital tools fail, doctors are left in a precarious position, unable to perform the fundamental actions required to manage patient care effectively. This not only erodes valuable clinical time but also poses a significant risk to the quality and safety of healthcare services being delivered across the island. The GHS IT system, intended to streamline and modernise healthcare, appears instead to be a source of considerable inefficiency and a potential impediment to the very well-being it is designed to uphold. The ongoing disruptions suggest a critical need for immediate and robust intervention to rectify these systemic deficiencies before they lead to more severe consequences for patient outcomes.