Latest News from Cyprus – 2nd March 2009

New Hospital for Paphos

Investment and confidence in Cyprus continue despite the global economic problems. 

Over the weekend, the Cyprus Mail reported that Paphos is going to have a brand new private medical centre, offering a wide range of treatments to both residents and visitors.

The new hospital, which will take three to four years to complete, will cost around €93 million and aims to offer centres of excellence in specialist areas such as oncology, transplants, orthopaedic, cardiac surgery and minimally invasive surgery. It is expected to serve both public patients and those with private insurance. To help meet the demand for medical services, the Cyprus government is moving forward with health insurance legislation to open up the market to private hospitals.

An agreement was signed last Friday between the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Paphos Plantations Ltd (PPL) to develop the medical centre. PPL is part of the Leptos Group and under the agreement they will build a new 100-bed hospital between Paphos and Yeroskipou, which will be part of the Leptos Group’s Neapolis project. The ambitious project, which will cost an estimated €1.5 billion, will also include a university, research centre, office park, hotel, luxury lifestyle housing, as well as retail, entertainment, cultural and leisure facilities.

UPMC has perfect credentials for the project. It employs 50,000 people and is a well-respected integrated global health enterprise based in the US. In 2008 it achieved more than US$7 million in revenue. Under the agreement, UPMC will manage the new 100-bed hospital and the existing 36-bed Iasis Hospital in Paphos. 

As well as providing senior management, staff training, equipment and implementing modern information systems, UPMC plans to develop medical services that are currently in short supply in Cyprus, such as comprehensive cancer services. Charles Bogosta, President of UPMC’s International and Commercial Services Division, said, “The plan is to start with the 36-bed facility at Iasis Hospital which we will be converting over to a cancer centre.

Over a two or three year period as the Neapolis hospital is being built, we will learn how things work in Cyprus and customise things as we need them.”  PPL hope that the new hospital and medical centre will meet the need for more healthcare options in Cyprus and say the facilities will be well-positioned to attract patients from all over the Middle East and Europe.

The project certainly has the backing of the government. Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis said that the project “fits in with the government’s economic policy of encouraging growth in new areas of services such as high quality healthcare and education.”  He said that the government is “totally committed” to the hospital project, promising that all the necessary licences and permits will be obtained as quickly as possible and that the government will help the banking institutions to finance the project.