Cyprus spends €2.6m annually on foreign air ambulance services

Nicosia, Cyprus. The Health Insurance Organisation spends approximately €2.6 million annually on external air ambulance services, with Greece providing most transfers, according to patients’ association Osak.

Around 100 patients required air transfers abroad over the past 10 months, mainly critically ill patients and those needing organ transplants, Osak said.

Reliance on overseas services

Osak said Cyprus currently relies entirely on air ambulance services from Greece and, to a lesser extent, Israel.

Cases include patients with severe health conditions, organ transplant recipients and infants under 30 days old for whom Cyprus does not have the required specialists. The association said such cases require timely intervention, which can be difficult because of reliance on providers abroad.

“The current time from the time we receive the call can be up to 15 hours,” Osak said.

Call for a Cyprus-owned aircraft

Osak cited a recent case in which a lung cancer patient missed the opportunity for a lung transplant abroad because air transport was unavailable. It said similar cases could be avoided if Cyprus operated its own air ambulance service.

“The need that we have according to new statistics from the HIO is that we need to start with one [air ambulance] and then see further,” Osak said.

The association said it has long called for a Cyprus-owned air ambulance and that, during a recent conversation with President Nikos Christodoulides, it was told the matter would be considered in the 2027 budget.