The Hippocratic Oath is 'one of the oldest binding documents in history', and one on which new doctors swear upon that they will heal the sick to the best of their ability. But it seems like is has been 'mislaid' in Larnaca and replaced with an oath to help the sick as long as it is not too inconvenient.
I am usually full of praise for our medical services, and have always found them - and the staff who carry them out - to have been thorough and efficient. Personally, I have (thankfully) not experienced bad medical service myself, but my faith in Larnaca doctors has been shaken to the core recently as a result of their treatment of a male relative of mine.
Said relative is in his twenties and was in a car accident last year whereby a courier van barged straight into a roundabout in Nicosia without looking and ploughed into the passenger side of his car. Had there been a passenger, there is a very good chance that there wouldn't be a passenger here today as the car was a write-off. My relative suffered whiplash.
Despite it being a clear case of the courier being at fault, the family have been struggling to take the case to court, and as this process has dragged on, my relative has been progressively getting worse. What started out as a little pain in his fingers and neck has spread from the fingers of each hand all the way up to both arms, across the shoulders and down the back. He is in constant pain, has trouble carrying out his desk job and can barely lift one of the arms up. It is apparent that he has some kind of nerve damage and will have to endure pain and treatments for some time, all because some irresponsible driver didn't look when driving, and now his equally irresponsible employer is simply not interested in what happened. It is no way for a young man in his prime to live.
But the problem with the Larnaca doctors is that although a young man is in debilitating pain and in need of treatment, he has actually been turned away by several doctors - both state and private. As soon as the doctors hear the words 'car crash' and 'court case' they drop him like a hot potato because they point blank 'do not want to get involved'. The thought of having to testify is just too inconvenient for them. One doctor actually put down his pen and paper and asked him to get out. The result is a delay in getting him properly diagnosed and started with treatment, which in turn has caused his condition to worsen. And because he cannot get a doctor's report to file with the court case, that is delayed too. The doctors' lack of ethics and desire to help is a brazen insult to the Hippocratic Oath.
Apparently, this is common knowledge. A lawyer relative told him that he would struggle to get a doctor to write a report, and others in similar situations have said that it was easier in the end to just give up on a court case and get treated. But with the loss of quality of life, the fees he has incurred trying out different medical solutions (including physiotherapy sessions), and the burden and strain this has placed on his life, why the heck should he not take the courier company to court?
At the time of writing, he has found a glimmer of hope at the town's only private hospital, where a doctor has been most accommodating. But why on earth should it have to take a year and a multitude of slamming doors to finally find one that is open? Hippocrates would turn in his grave.
First appeared in The Cyprus Weekly, 06/02/15
