Casualty department transfers to new hospital

THE NEW Nicosia General Hospital’s Emergency Room came into operation at midnight yesterday, while during the day, the cardiology, surgery and pathology departments were transferred from the old building.

At a minute after midnight, the doors to the new hospital’s ER officially opened and accepted four patients. The old hospital continued to operate for four hours in case of any difficulties.

“Between 12 and 12.30 last night, four people came to the new Emergency Room and were treated,” said Health Minister Charis Charalambous.

Throughout the day yesterday, the new hospital accepted a number of emergencies, which were dealt with without problem.

The move from old Nicosia General to the new one is expected to be complete by October 18, though Charalambous yesterday said things were moving at a faster pace than anticipated. “It is very possible that we will be done much sooner than predicted.”

Meanwhile, the transportation of patients from the old hospital, which began on Monday, is running smoothly, according to the hospital’s Director, Andreas Polynikis.

He said yesterday that 14 intensive care patients and six patients of the Cardiology Unit’s intensive care unit had been moved in the past two days. It was also estimated that 30 to 35 patients would be moved throughout yesterday.

“I think we are moving at a normal speed and slowly, slowly the hospital has began to fill with life,” said Polynikis.

“Thankfully, no problems appeared for any of the patients that were transferred. But as you can understand, the majority of these patients are in a very serious condition.”

“Yesterday [on Monday], we didn’t face any problems, and I mean it with every sense of the word. Our main concern was that when the first patients were connected to the machinery, the machinery worked properly. We had experts with us to deal with any possible problems, but thankfully everything went smoothly.”