IMPORTANT - White medical cards and S1 holders

We had to renew ours in Feb this year having had it since 2019.....

And for those who normally complete their online tax return with the official GESY tax exemption certificate / letter ..you will use the white medical card number for the 2024 tax year return

Getting your S1 form and Republic of Cyprus medical card

There have been a lot of questions on Social Media lately regarding GESY and continued access once a person reaches retirement age. We are also taking a number of phone calls daily regarding what are seen as changes to the system, but in many cases it's simply the HIO making sure the correct documents are in place so that they can charge your home country's health system with any costs associated to you participating in the GESY Healthcare System.

Concern (and sometimes panic) is often prompted by an email from GESY via the HIO saying you "no longer meet the requirement to have access...." which creates a lot of stress and can even disrupt any treatment plan so working to avoid this challenge is important.

So here is a simple step by step guide for you to ensure retain/regain your entitlement to GESY.

Firstly, you need to ensure you have an S1 certificate; for those who applied for one previously when you joined GESY as it started up in 2019,  you should have retained a copy so try and find it. If not, follow the procedure below.

Secondly, if you are a dependent (husband/wife) and currently use your spouse's S1 and are coming up to retirement age, you need to apply for your own S1 following the procedure below.

IMPORTANT - If you currently hold a Republic of Cyprus White Medical Card that you would have applied for during your application to join GESY and it DOESN'T have an expiry date on, you will need to apply for a new one at some point.

We advise this as it appears that all new Medical Cards appear to have a 5 year expiration date from issue on them, so assume that when you first joined GESY, say if its 5 years ago, then expect to get an email at some point; so start planning to replace it now and mark your calendar or enter a reminder on your phone, set about a month before you joined GESY, to follow the procedure below.

PROCESS THAT WE HAVE FOUND TO BE SUCCESSFUL:

Step 1 - Contact the NHS overseas team and request to do an over the phone application for an S1 (they will soon work out if you already have one and advise accordingly. Their contact details are:

NHS Overseas Healthcare Services

Telephone: +44 (0)191 218 1999

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm

Saturday, 9am to 3pm

Once you have completed the application process, or they confirm there is a valid S1 in place, ask the representative to email you a copy of your S1. It may take a few hours or may happen straight away, depending upon whether there is an approval step to be made before you receive it so just be patient.

Step 2 - Once you have received your S1, contact the Paphos Citizen advice offices +357 22 309100 and book an appointment, remembering that if you go as a couple, you need two back to back appointments as they will only complete one action per appointment!

Step 3- Go "belt & braces" and ensure when you attend your appointment, you take your original MEU1 ARC or MEU3 ARC (yellow slips) or Biometric ARC card, two copies of your S1 and your passport. If you have your old White Medical Card or a copy of it, take that too! Once your application is processed at Citizens Advice, you should receive your new card within one month, sent to your home address in Cyprus.

Step 4 - Once in receipt of your new White Medical Card, check the information very carefully to make sure that the information matches that on your yellow slip/Biometric card is identical. If it isn't, book an appointment with Citizens Advice and get it corrected, otherwise the HIO will reject the document after the final step is taken.

Step 5 - Take your new White Medical Card and Yellow slip/Biometric Card to the reception team and they will scan a copy and forward it to the GESY team in Nicosia to ask for you to be reinstated into the GESY Healthcare system. Preferably do so late morning or early afternoon given how busy the Practice is.

We will update this as and when we see or hear any changes in the process that we know currently works as of 10/7/24

With thanks to Dr Molly's for the updates