THE HEALTH service was yesterday given a shot in the arm with the unveiling of four state-of-the-art ambulances bringing the government-operated fleet to 60 vehicles.
Health Minister Frixos Savvides received the £100,000 vehicles during a special ceremony outside the casualty department of Nicosia general hospital.
The ambulances are to be used by Makarios hospital, Limassol general hospital and Paralimni hospital.
Most of the 60 ambulances are based at urban hospitals but have no permanent attendants and usually driven by hospital nurses.
A 1994 World Health study condemned the current ambulance system and urged them to replace it with a paramedic one 1995. A 1996 study by a British consultant concluded that, two years on, none of the WHO report’s recommendations had been implemented.
House Health Committee testimony in 1996 also indicated 40 people died each year in Cyprus due to the island’s poor ambulance service.
Savvides in October 1999 promised to open a paramedic training school in September 2000, and have its first graduates in urban ambulances by mid-2001, and throughout Cyprus by 2003.
But in early February Savvides said he had advanced that timetable so the first paramedic attendants would be in ambulances in Cyprus “before the end of the year.”
Senior Health Ministry officials were yesterday unavailable to comment on the current state of the paramedic training school.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
