Malas: let’s not play with people’s health

HEALTH Minister Stavros Malas defended the need for more staff at state hospitals yesterday after 25 temporary employees did not have their contract renewed last week.

“The positions that we wanted to make permanent would have been filled from those that did not have their contract renewed,” said Malas at a news conference yesterday.

Chaos has reigned in state hospitals lately with various departments shutting down islandwide due to a staffing problem. They have not been able to hire any additional people, and are struggling as a result of budget cuts affecting the hiring of staff in the public sector.

Malas said an amendment bill had been sent to parliament on March 6, which requests the exemption of the health sector from the freeze on hiring temporary staff in the public sector.

“We’ve said repeatedly that these needs have to be dealt with,” said Malas.

“We shouldn’t play with people’s health especially during a crisis when they should not be further burdened,” added Malas.

DISY’s Harris Georgiades said the House was not about to hand the government a blank cheque to hire as many employees as it wanted.

“There is a big list of people to be (potentially) hired not just in the health sector but in the public sector as a whole,” said Georgiades, adding that the bill refers to 648 permanent positions and an unlimited number of temporary staff. 

Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou hit back. He denied that the state had asked for the hiring of an unlimited number of people. He also said that when the budget was approved it froze the hiring of temporary employees, but the government had wanted exceptions in the areas of health, education and social welfare.

According to AKEL’s Giorgos Loukaides the health minister has been warning them since December of the problems that would be caused in the health sector due to staffing problem.

“We believe that the health minister has fully informed them on the issue of temporary staff and permanent positions,” said Loukaides. He also confirmed that they had provided a complete picture on what their immediate needs were.

 

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