THE HOUSE Health Committee yesterday called for Paphos General Hospital’s Accidents and Emergency Unit to be immediately reinforced, with staff as well as equipment because of the dire situation there.
Speaking after the meeting, Committee Chairman Eleni Theocharous of DISY said the Committee had requested reinforcement of the hospital’s services as the parliamentary discussion had clearly shown that the situation there was dire.
Theocharous said this was a problem faced by all of the island’s hospitals, but the situation was worse in Paphos, she said.
“This is an especially burdened department that suffers from lack of staff, but also a lack of appropriate ambulances,” said Theocharous.
“For this reason, following our Committee’s evaluation of the matter, we have reached the conclusion that this department needs to be reinforced.”
Theocharous said that by approving the hospital’s supplementary budget, two further doctors and five nurses are expected to join Paphos Hospital within the next two days.
The problems faced by the island’s health sector, and especially Paphos General Hospital, were recently highlighted in the Cyprus Mail.
Last week a man who passed out at a hotel event in Peyia was transported from the venue by paramedics on a suitcase trolley, as shocked guests looked on.
The excuse was the ambulance’s stretcher did not fit into the hotel’s lift. A man who used to work for a private paramedics form contacted the paper in shock over the way the whole situation was handled.
Inside the ambulance, he said there was no carry chair or wheelchair, and there was barely any equipment inside to deal with an emergency.
Peyia councillor Linda Leblanc said what happened just demonstrated “the dire situation we have here”.
“These are third world conditions and we are an EU member state,” she said.
Leblanc has long been lobbying for a higher level of emergency medical care in Paphos and in Cyprus as a whole. “It’s a question of political will. I hope the ministry of health takes note. We’re calling on the minister to examine the situation. I know proposals have gone to the ministry on the subject of paramedics, but these courses take four years to complete and this needs urgent action.”
