Chasing ambulances and paramedics

By George Psyllides

HEALTH authorities are pressing the finance ministry to authorise the hiring of 24 paramedic staff to man four regional ambulance stations and make the service more efficient, the Cyprus Mail has learned.

For years, successive administrations did nothing to improve the service. When they finally decided to train paramedics, the positions were frozen because of the economic crisis.

The hiring freeze in the public sector, including that of the 49 newly-trained paramedics, meant the ambulance stations earmarked for Klirou, Limassol town centre, Oroklini and Peyia cannot operate unless the finance ministry opens the positions.

The Cyprus Mail has learned that health authorities were pushing for the recruitment of 24 paramedics to staff the four centres.

Eight of them have since been hired after the same number of ambulance drivers retired.

However, opening the four stations does not appear to be in the government’s immediate priorities.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.