The Cyprus Medical Council drafted alerts in 2019 about two doctors in a European Union warning system but did not share them with other countries until October 2025., shortly after the publication of a cross-border investigation on the subject, records viewed by CIReN show.
CIReN’s investigation Bad Practice examined how countries often fail to use the EU’s Internal Market Information (IMI) system to warn their counterparts about professionals whose right to practice medicine has been restricted or revoked.
Cyprus also stands out for failing to regularly utilise the alert system, though records do show that an alert regarding another doctor’s suspension was broadcast on time in September 2025.
Still, Cyprus did not open any medical license alerts sent by other countries between 2021 and 2025, hundreds of records reviewed by reporters confirm. Moreover, the country’s authorities had not accessed earlier warnings about a doctor banned in Sweden and Norway, who was working in Cyprus despite serious medical misconduct in those countries.
The Cyprus Medical Council only reviewed alerts about the doctor after CIReN published the “Bad Practice” investigation in October 2025, IMI records confirm.
The findings underscore broader weaknesses in the EU’s alert system, where critical warnings about serious professional misconduct are often left unread, raising concerns about oversight, accountability and patient safety across borders.
The delayed alerts that recently came into focus concerned two doctors from Belarus, whose specialist qualifications in general practice had been revoked in Cyprus.
The Cyprus Medical Council acknowledged the alerts by pointing to the court rulings that led to the revocation of the two doctors’ specialties, but did not respond to the question about the six-year gap between the drafting date and broadcast date of the alerts. The Council also noted ongoing disciplinary and criminal proceedings.
According to the Administrative Court’s ruling in a joint case brought by the two doctors to challenge the Cyprus Medical Council’s decision, they were granted specialty recognition as general practitioners in Cyprus in 2015 after submitting documents confirming the completion of four years of postgraduate training in Belarus.
But evidence reviewed by the court indicated that they had not spent the required time in Belarus during that period and had instead been in Cyprus for much of their training. The court concluded that Cypriot authorities were justified in withdrawing recognition once it became clear that the legal requirements had not been met.
The IMI alerts cite “substantial reasons concerning the practice of the professional” as a justification for the alert.
The two doctors remain listed in the Cyprus Medical Registry but are no longer recognized as specialists in general practice.