THE BANK of Cyprus Oncology Centre in Nicosia boasts everything that is essential and more for any advanced cancer clinic in the world.
However, in recent weeks, the centre has come into the spotlight because of the storm over cancer patients and the fact that there are not enough beds around Nicosia to house them; but, according to the director of the clinic, Alecos Stamatis, the problem is not that there are not enough beds, but there are simply not enough nurses.
“The critical issue isn’t beds really, but nursing. We have about 40 beds at the Oncology Centre and we are using only 32; the constraint is nursing. The lack of nursing in Cyprus is a big issue. Of course, there is a shortage of nurses throughout the world so the shortage of nurses is not unique to Cyprus.
“However, Cyprus does not need thousands and thousands of nurses and a few hundred nurses over the next few years would suffice to meet our needs over the next five or 10 years.
“What we need is a longer-term plan to meet the needs of not only the public sector and organisations like our own, but also in the private sector. We need to put on the table the capacity for our own school of nursing and the possibility of training nurses in Greece.”
The situation has been highlighted by the fact that almost half the nurses at the clinic have applied to leave for more lucrative jobs in the public sector.
Some argue that the clinic, which has its staff salaries paid by the state, is not doing enough to help keep the nurses put. Stamatis admits there is a problem: “The problem of nurses about to leave from our clinic should be addressed, but the problem should not be focused only on nursing. Whether we outside the public service like it or not, the public service is the dominant force in the labour market for a whole series of paramedical and other very scarce skills.
“Nursing is certainly perhaps one of the most important of these kind of professions but one should also include professions like pharmacists, radiographers and medical physicists that are all very specialised and all in very short supply to the extent that benefits in the public sector are better.
“This will undoubtedly keep on creating difficulties and problems in the private sector.”
But he sees the problem of wage differences being eradicated over time.
“Cyprus is a nation which is moving towards a national health insurance system, where all services, whether they are public or private will be funded by the same source, so it is inconceivable that we should have staff being paid on a different basis. Gradually one can see how the benefits of staff of all categories will gradually converge. The anticipation of this convergence is one of the main reasons why we should tackle this issue of two different speeds with regards to remuneration and benefits. Of course, it is a particularly difficult situation for a tertiary centre like ours.”
It may seem strange that with so many doctors, Cyprus is short of nurses. But the answer is clear to Stamatis, who believes that the ambitions of youngsters wanting to be doctors and the underserved stigma attached to nursing, have all contributed to the problem.
“It is part of the social fabric. Because of the aspiration of young people to move to a respected and socially recognised profession like medicine means that Cyprus will be training more doctors than it would like. In fact, because the prospects for a decent living as a doctor in the private sector are not as good as they were several decades ago, there are now several hundred Cypriots living and working abroad.
“By contrast, the profession of nursing, and we must be sincere and recognise this, has a low image and it is this very image that has to be upgraded to reflect the reality. The reality is that nursing is no longer the low-skilled, low-paid job that it once was. It is a very specialised, science-based profession that has its human elements and human compassion but also its very high demand for both technical skills and theoretical knowledge.
“We ourselves are very aware of the need to continually train and specialise our nurses. We are doing so with universities and cancer hospitals abroad and do recognise that our more experienced nurses are a very valuable resource.”
