There is a need to re-plan taking into account the real needs, regarding the proposal of the Health Insurance Organization (OHI) for the inclusion of occupational therapy services in the NHS, the President said on Saturday at KYPE of the Pancypriot Association of Occupational Therapists (PSE), Despina Kaimi.
The PSE, in a statement earlier in the week, said that, at a General Assembly on 29.01.2023, it received a clear order to reject the proposal of the OAU for the inclusion of occupational therapy services in the National Health Service, as the proposal and its “achronistic conditions”, as she mentions, they lead occupational therapists to “scientific and professional condemnation”.
In her statements to KYPE, Mrs. Kaimi noted that, according to a study by their advisers, the proposed budget is insufficient and the needs of chronic patients will not be met.
He said that their study tells them that in order to properly cover the needs that the OAU has put in the tables at the moment, which again are limited, as he said, since they are not what the beneficiary really needs, but what they have included in the occupational therapy package depending on the percentage of the population they have put in, they need €30 million.
He noted that the OAU's proposal for a budget of €12.8 million may sound like a large amount, “but we are talking about chronically ill people who need at least 48 visits a year.” According to Ms. Kaimi, only one diagnostic category has them on the board at the moment, autism, which, normally, their real needs are 96 visits a year, as she said. He added that 48 treatments means once a week, and 96 means about 2 times a week, while the needs of children with autism who are now in treatment are 2 to 3 times a week.
He said that there should be a different way of calculating these needs because a fracture that will need a certain number of treatments in total cannot be put in the same category as a chronic condition that needs a certain number of treatments over many years to be able to do these people have quality of life. He said that they handle difficult cases, while he noted that there is also a big impact on the families of patients with chronic conditions.
He also said that they have over 60,000 patients, suggesting that speech therapy had about 15,700. He also referred to a warning by the World Health Organization about an increase in chronic and rare cases due to the coronavirus, but also due to other causes, while he noted that studies record an increase in autism internationally.
Ms. Kaimi he said that the Association's recommendation was to record the real needs in the first three years, such as the practice for new systems, as he said.
“To properly record the needs and diseases, and the numbers of beneficiaries,” he noted, adding that planning should be done again taking into account real needs and the system should be carefully designed.
“We are interested in creating something right,” he said, noting that they stopped the dialogue so that the OAU could rethink the facts and come up with revised proposals, to look at them again.
In the announcement of the PSE, it is stated, among other things, that, after studying the proposal, “it concludes that the OAU does not have the financial ability to ensure all the therapeutic operations required for the beneficiaries, while it notes with regret that the approach to the issue is done with purely financial criteria, without any other scientific documentation, at the expense of the patients”.
“The OAU, without having begun to provide treatments through the NHS to patients with chronic conditions, is attempting to justify the undoubtedly high demand for occupational therapy services as 'abuse', instead of acknowledging its own inability to adequately provide these services to all. those who need them due to a lack of resources”, it adds.
He notes that the PSE “as a matter of course entered the dialogue in good faith and demonstrated from the beginning and throughout the consultations a consensual attitude, submitting proposals for strengthening of the NHS, with a view to ensuring the orderly and quality operation of the system, ensuring proper working conditions for occupational therapists and quality health services for the beneficiaries”.
The PSE found during the negotiations, it added, a “complete absence” of insurance policies and guarantees to ensure a fixed price for occupational therapy care. “Since there are examples within the health system where the unit price has seen a significant reduction over 8-9 months, the OAU has been asked to provide a solution to the matter. However, the OAU's approach with wishes of the type “we will examine it”, “we will see”, increases the concern of the PSE that correct working conditions will not be ensured for occupational therapists”, he notes.
He adds that the OAU “did not take into account any of the most important issues that were put on the table” and that “as long as the OAU and the political system are willingly blind to the problems of the GeSY, the PSE cannot be a participant in the System, since as it became clear from his attitude, the OAH prefers to trivialize the occupational therapy act, without realizing the damage it will cause to the professional and the danger to which he pushes the patient”.
