Opening several months before the first phase of Gesy was implemented, the centre was the main contact point between the health insurance organisation (HIO), health professionals, and the public, Nicos Tsivgoulis said.

Another busy period was the start of Covid vaccinations and the need to arrange appointments with a portal that kept crashing.

According to Tsivgoulis, things were much more demanding and difficult because of time pressure.

“People wanted service immediately and despite vaccination appointments being the responsibility of the health ministry and not HIO, the public wanted information and their appointments to be arranged immediately,” he said. “We had cases of people who called us continuously, over 100 times.”

Under normal conditions, the people’s queries and requests are handled immediately over the phone, or through email.

Delays were only recorded during peak periods, when the centre was receiving thousands of queries through every possible communication avenue.

Most questions handled by the centre concerned registration, creation of accounts, connecting to their medical history, and changes to personal data.

People also ask about medicines included in the system while provided services, and payment issues are also high up on the list.

There were also those who were still confused with the centre’s role, calling and asking about social insurance matters. Yet others, confuse the centre with the citizen centres.

Source: Cyprus Mail