Doctors call on ministry to take staff shortages seriously

Public sector doctors accused the health ministry on Tuesday of being unable to realise the severity of the situation in state hospitals and of avoiding engaging in a dialogue to resolve the problems caused by staff shortages.

In an open letter to the health minister, their union, PASYKI, said the ministry only had cheap excuses to offer regarding the policies that caused the sorry state of affairs in state hospitals and its inability to take corrective measures.

PASYKI was referring to the lack of doctors and the official side’s arguments that there were no funds nor interested people.

The union said it appeared that the only thing the ministry could manage was to produce waiting lists in public hospitals and then channel the patients to private facilities.

Coming up with over €8m to implement a pilot scheme – to send people to the private sector – proved that finding money was easy, PASYKI said.

“Cutting corners in the health sector… due to understaffing and the effort to alleviate the problem by exploiting the work done by state doctors should stop,” PASYKI said.

The union said hospital departments such as oncology, cytology, gynaecology and others, were at risk of closure, while clinics could not cover on-call duty.

Aimed at ensuring quality and safe healthcare, PASYKI said it will ask its members to adjust the cases they handle, and overtime, according to the number of staff in each department.

The union apologised to patients for the inconvenience they were going through because of the ministry’s failure to take corrective measures, and expressed hope that their cry for help would be heeded.

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.