UCy med school contracts still in limbo

The minister of health’s proposal concerning the pay of academics at state hospitals is being studied by government doctors.

The unions have taken some days to study the proposal and get back to the health ministry, Phileleftheros reports.

The matter relates to the Medical School of the University of Cyprus (UCy) whereby, under an agreement with the health ministry its academic staff will receive clinical training at state hos-pitals.

In a bid to block the arrangement, government doctors had previously threatened strike action.

Meanwhile a bill placing the collaboration between the UCy medical school and state hospitals within a legal framework is now being finalised, with the aim of sending it to parliament by September.

According to the health ministry’s calculations, the arrangement will generate savings for the state.

Under the proposal, academics (from lecturers to tenured professors) of the medical school would spend 50 per cent of their working time at state hospitals, but would only be paid an ex-tra 20 to 30 per cent.

The work at state hospitals would include both clinical and administrative duties.

The unions representing government doctors are said to oppose this, arguing that the academic clinicians should not be compensated at all for their time at state hospitals – although this de-mand of theirs has yet to be put in writing.

Meanwhile UCy announced on Tuesday that it was pressing ahead with the selection of the five members of the medical school’s academic staff and the election of the Dean.

More than 100 applications had been received from Greece, the United States, Great Britain, Sweden and other countries, the university said.

It said it would soon be opening seven more positions for academic staff, and planned to sub-sequently ask permission from the state for nine more positions.

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