There was no result during the meeting of OKYpY with the Pan-Cypriot Association of Government Doctors (PASYKI) and the PASYDY medical branch, at noon on Wednesday at the offices of OKypY, in Nicosia, which was held with the aim of ending the deadlock after the results of the study of the house, to which she had been assigned, for the incentive plan.
In his statements after the end of the meeting, the President of PASYKI, Sotiris Koumas, stated that, regarding the study, PASYKI received answers from the representative of the company that carried out the study. “It is now our belief that we have been justified in terms of the positions we declared in the previous days”, he noted.
“OKYpY received the part of the study that it considered to be in its favor”, said Mr. Koumas, adding that he welcomes the initiative of the General Executive and the Financial Director of OKypY to invite PASYKI to submit an additional financial proposal. This, as he explained, “means that they recognize that somewhere there is a mistake in what they have accepted and approved”, stressing that “they should be correct towards the doctors”.
“The proposal that has been given certainly does not satisfy us, but we have not thrown it in the basket”, clarified the President of PASYKI. As he said, “we have made a counter-proposal at the financial level so that the specific issue can be resolved as soon as possible. Of course, we did not accept their proposal to be connected with the dialogue that will start for 2024-2026”. He also mentioned that PASYKI's proposal partially provides a solution, adding that it remains for OKYPY to process it and respond.
“We do not have enough time. For another month the doctors will lose June and there is the question of whether we will manage to find a solution for September”, he continued. In response to a question whether OKYpY proposed to the doctors to pay them an additional amount beyond the €2.5 million resulting from the agreement, Mr. Koumas answered in the affirmative, recalling that OKypY had submitted as an official proposal the payment of the amount of €4,100,000.
Asked if it is the same amount at the moment, Mr. Koumas replied “approximately”, adding that the auditing firm disagrees with the same the first proposal of OKYpY.
Answering another question, the President of PASYKI reminded that the strike measures have been suspended, adding that no one has canceled them.
Asked to comment on the fact that doctors were given part of the auditor's report, Sotiris Koumas said that the problem that has been created is how everyone interprets the terms of the mandate signed by OKYpY together with the audit firm, one as agent and the other as contractor.
“As the mandate terms are interpreted, for us the fourth point I think is the answer that the auditing firm should, after financially analyzing what is included in the agreement in 2022 and 2023, submit its own proposal,” he underlined. “From what it seems, what OKYpY has promoted to us is the first point,” he continued.
Answering another question, Mr. Koumas said that there were proposals from the audit house. Studying the data, it seems that the previous agreement is suffering, new data has emerged, which strangely were assumptions that were taken into account for 2022, but as far as 2023 is concerned, they were “hidden behind the text of the agreement”, he reported.
“The agreement is not only a paragraph that touches on the economic issue. It has other parameters, which were to be implemented from 2020 when it was signed. If we go with a legal approach, the fact that the agreement was not fully implemented, then there is no agreement,” he indicated.
“The further actions are now up to OKYpY”, said the President of PASYKI, who, as he mentioned, after the meeting asked OKypY to give him every proposal in written form.
For his part, the President of the medical branch of PASYDY, Moises Lambrou, expressed his satisfaction with what the audit house said in the sense that the way in which the house itself perceived its mandate was roughly what it had persist in the last days. However, as he said, “the order given to him by OKYPY himself, based on the employment contract he wrote, did not leave him room to present something different”.
“We remained in the dialogue regarding the issue of formulating some other, probably alternative, proposal, which will essentially bring about the end of this whole process, the which goes on endlessly”, he noted.
Answering a question, Mr. Lambrou said that he still does not have the terms of reference given by OKYPY to the audit house, even though the doctors are contracting parties. The terms of reference had at least been read by the house itself, he added. “There was a different interpretation of the proposal and on this disagreement we essentially focus our next steps and talks,” he said.
Answering a question whether the amount foreseen by the study exceeds two and a half million euros, Mr. Lambrou expressed the opinion that this amount will increase to a level that will possibly satisfy all parties based on a possible new agreement.
Asked about PASYDY's next steps in this matter, Mr. Lambrou said that PASYDY will expect some proposals or some continuation of the dialogue based on today's meeting. As he said, the initiative of the Executive Director of OKYPY was “quite important” and the presence of the PIS itself “quite catalytic”.
We expect this dialogue to continue until a solution is found, said Moises Lambrou, adding that PASYDY has already sent an invitation to the Minister of Health “so that the I myself have taken some initiatives in terms of solving this issue.”
When asked if the framework for 2024-2026 was also discussed at the meeting, Mr. Lambrou answered in the negative, stressing that “there is no discussion and no identification of the previous agreement with 2024-2026”. As he said, there will be some talks regarding 2024-2026.
“There is an open invitation from the Minister for September 3, but if things don't get on a more correct track, as we understand it and it concerns outstanding issues , there will not be any discussion about a further agreement”, he concluded.
OKYpY will pay 2.5 million euros
No mistake was made in the calculation of the amount of the vertical incentive, based on the existing Agreement, the study was given as it is, and therefore the State Health Services Organization (SHO) will keep its commitment and pay the amount of 2.5 million euros, as recommended by the independent audit firm, the Organization states, for its part, in its announcement.
At the same time, he invites doctors to come to a dialogue for the conclusion of a new Convention for 2024.
In his announcement after his meeting with the Pancypriot Union of Government Doctors (PASYKI) and the medical branch of PASYDY, at noon on Wednesday, the Organization states that “as explained to the representatives of the Medical Associations and to the President of the Pancypriot Medical Association, no mistake was made in the calculation of the amount of the vertical incentive, based on the existing Agreement, the study was given to them as is, and as a result, OKYpY will keep its commitment and pay the amount of 2.5 million euros, as recommended by the independent audit firm”.
He also mentions that "there is no new proposal from the Organization for 2023 and OKYpY invites doctors to enter into a dialogue for the conclusion of a new Contract for 2024, which must be completed by end of October 2024, as was the commitment of both parties”.
Source: KYPE
