Common use of Cyprus Clause in Contracts

Cyprus. Older adults, at the age of 65+ hold 13,9% of the population in Cyprus and 7,4% are living alone in their households as of 2014 statistics. The healthcare system in Cyprus consists of two delivery mechanisms: the public sector and the private sector. The centralized structure of the public sector is financed by the state budget and is responsible for the planning, organization, administration and regulation of the healthcare services. Healthcare is provided by the primary healthcare centres and the hospitals under the direct control of the Ministry of Health, in the form of primary health care, specialists’ services, paramedical services, emergency services, hospital care, pharmaceutical services, dental care, rehabilitation and home care. There are two types of private sector programs in Cyprus: Home Care Nursing provides a) short term care: includes individuals, which according to evaluation by home care nurses, will benefit from a two month nursing care service and b) long-term care: includes individuals that after being evaluated by a home care nurse are provided with nursing home care services that lasts more than two months12. 9 Marktstruktur und Mitarbeiterentwicklung im ambulanten Pflegemarkt – 2014 - ▇▇▇▇://▇▇▇.▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇.▇▇▇/media/datenmarkt/uploads/fachartikel/mitarbeiterentwicklung-bei-ambulanten- pflegediensten.pdf 10 ▇▇▇▇://▇▇▇.▇▇▇.▇▇▇▇.▇▇/themen/pflege/pflegekraefte/pflegefachkraeftemangel.html 11 Ökonomische Potenziale altersgerechter Assistenzsysteme – BMBF 2012 12 ▇▇▇▇▇, ▇. ▇▇ al. (2015) Evaluation of Home Care Nursing for Elderly People in Cyprus, International Journal of Caring Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 376-384. Home care (not nursing care) is provided also by the Social Welfare Services in Cyprus aiming to support vulnerable groups of people such as the elderly, to enable them to live at home. Carers visit people at their own homes in order to provide personal hygiene, house- cleaning, washing of clothes, shopping etc., but compared to the community nursing staff are not educated or experts on the health/nursing care. Cyprus has joined other Southern Mediterranean countries in moving long-term care towards the ‘migrant-in-the-family’ model. Home care is largely provided either by informal, unpaid carers within the family or paid, live-in female migrant workers mostly from Asian countries. In Cyprus, like elsewhere in the Mediterranean, migrant care workers are more affordable than local workers, and they are plentiful. Standard contracts set by the government contribute to keeping the wages of these workers very low13. According to EU statistics, personnel shortages in elderly care – especially of semi-skilled care workers and professionals – are reported or forecasted in a large number of countries, including Cyprus14. Considering that the total health expenditure has increased over time from 510 million euro in 1998 to 974 million euro in 2007 with individuals at the age of 75 and above affecting this expenditure heavily15 urges for actions to be taken towards supporting the elderly care sector in the island. The financing sources of the social protection system in Cyprus vary between the different parts of the system16. At the moment, government provision of health care services is funded out of general taxation, with the exception of a small part financed from charges imposed on some services. Entitlement to publicly provided free medical care is based on individual earnings below €15.300 per annum, household earnings below €30.600 per annum (increased by €1700 for each dependent child) and households with more than three children. Individuals with incomes between €15.300 and €20.400 and households with incomes between €30.600 and €34.400 (increased by €1700 for each dependent child) receive health care at reduced cost. On the basis of these criteria approximately 85–90% of the population has access to free or reduced rate public health services, the remainder pay according (reduce cost) fee schedules set by the Ministry of Health. While the public sector provides free, or reduced cost, medical care to poor people and its own employees, high-income groups that are not civil servants are excluded from the system. Moreover, individuals who access the public health care system do not have as much choice as those in the private sector.