By Evie Andreou and Andria Kades
THURSDAY’S four-hour strike by all staff at public hospitals was unwarranted and set personal interests above that of patients, Health minister Philippos Patsalis said, adding that almost all of the trade unions’ demands have already been met.
Fortunately, he said, no serious cases were reported and none were referred to the private hospitals.
Health professionals should struggle for the best interest of the patients and not for their own, Patsalis said during a ‘damage control’ visit to Nicosia General Hospital, adding that there was a low turnout at the public hospitals and that no significant problems were recorded.
Joining the strike, organised by the PASYNO union, the nurses’ branch of the public service union PASYDY, were the nurses and midwives association, the PASYDY unions for mental health professionals, physiotherapists, radiologists, lab technicians and pharmacists, as well as the state doctors’ union PASYKI.
The striking health professionals claimed government promises have not been kept on staffing and pay.
During the strike from 7.30 to 11am, all state hospitals were operating with skeleton staff, while it had been announced a day earlier that cases of life threatening conditions would be diverted to private hospitals.
Patsalis said that striking was not the solution to the problems in the health sector as it caused more inconvenience to patients.
“I understand that our hospitals are overcrowded and there is an increased work load, but it is more important to look at the problems of the patients, and not of the health professionals,” the minister said.
As regards the nurses’ and doctors’ demands, he said that his ministry has met most of the demands raised by unions, that could be realised according to current legislation, the bail-out memorandum and the economic crisis.
“We decided to strike when we realised that the current situation in hospitals cannot be tolerated any more,” the head of the PASYDY nurses union, Prodromos Argyrides, said.
He added that to be able to meet the demands of the overcrowded hospitals, 100 more nurses need to be hired and that if the government cannot afford to hire them, then hospital beds should be decreased so that they can provide better services.
“Concerning the nurses, we have proceeded to unfreeze administrative posts and some promotions have been effected… but all the demands of all health professionals will be discussed within the framework of the hospitals’ autonomy and restructuring, which we cannot discuss yet as circumstances do not allow this,” the minister said.
Commenting on the demands for extra nursing staff, he said that the needs of each hospital will be identified from studies made concerning the restructuring of hospitals and not from personal estimates.
The head of sate doctors union PASYKI, Maro Kontou said that they have reached an agreement with the ministry concerning overtime pay, but that the new system they agreed on, and which is applicable since the beginning of the year, has not been implemented yet.
Another issue is the problem some 300 doctors face who work on temporary contracts, Kontou said.
She added that according to the law, after 30 months of service, temporary contracts must be converted to indefinite contracts, but this is not the case.
As regards doctors, two of the three main demands have been met – overtime pay and unfreezing of 56 hospital administration posts – while the third issue concerning temporary contracts will be addressed within the allowed legal framework, Patsalis said.
He added that the bill concerning hospitals’ autonomy will be tabled to parliament in about a month and he invited all health professionals to discuss issues as of Monday in order to start addressing the remaining issues.
However, he chastised doctors for breaking the agreement they had with the ministry a few months ago, when the ministry agreed to their demands but asked that they refrain from any strike measure.
“To me, the doctors’ strike was unjustified and inexplicable,” Patsalis said.
Despite opposition from health professionals, Patsalis said that during his visit to the hospital, he was urged by members of the public to proceed with the reforms so that the level of services is improved.
“We either do this change together by leaving aside petty interests, or we have to take the decision that will take us towards self-destruction,” Patsalis said.
The head of the organised patients’ association, Marios Kouloumas, said that even though they are not against strikes, patients should come first and asked for solutions to be found.
“Do you know what this means for a patient who has been waiting for a year for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to find out it has been cancelled today?” Kouloumas said.
