HIO approves 932 of 1,304 Gesy treatment-abroad requests in first year

The Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) approved 932 of 1,304 requests for Gesy beneficiaries to receive medical treatment abroad in the first 12 months since it took over the process, with 24 cases classed as life-threatening and 86 as emergencies since October 2025. The average time from submitting a request to admission to a hospital abroad was 1.5 days for life-threatening cases, five days for emergencies and 22 days for non-urgent cases. Most referrals were to hospitals in Germany (28.4 per cent), followed by Greece (21.2 per cent), the United Kingdom (18.5 per cent) and Israel (11.7 per cent), and the HIO also arranged 101 medical air transfers. The referrals cover patients needing services that cannot be provided in Cyprus through Gesy within the necessary timeframe.