An important new path is opening for patients in Cyprus who need a heart transplant. Through cooperation with Greece, they will now be able to enter the country’s National Registry of Candidate Heart Transplant Recipients.
The move expands an earlier Cyprus–Greece agreement that covered lung transplants. Doctors within GeSY were informed through the Health Insurance Organisation, while the Transplant Council outlined the procedures that must now be followed.
Until the amendment to the agreement is formally completed, every new inclusion of a Cypriot patient on the heart transplant list will be handled on an interim basis through a request submitted to the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, following a referral from the Transplant Council. In urgent cases, HIO officers will be able to notify the Council by phone.
The HIO also makes clear that a patient must already be registered in the Greek registry before being sent abroad for a heart transplant. Early inclusion is considered crucial because it improves the chances of finding a compatible donor organ more quickly.
