For months, the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB) and the collective bodies of Hospitals (PASIN) and Doctors (PIS), have been desperately asking the State to effectively handle the very serious problem of the shortage of nurses in the country’s health system.
With successive performances, official, unofficial, private and public, we pointed out the problem and submitted responsible and documented proposals for its solution or at least its mitigation.
The State recognizes the problem in the most official way and accepts it through public statements by the competent Minister and other State officials who determine the needs of more than 500 additional nurses.
However, no one proceeds to the promotion of the necessary decisions and the implementation of the imposed measures to deal with it. An example of this inaction is that we have lost another year of graduates of nursing schools in Cyprus, where our non-European graduates are already securing jobs in other European countries, which were obviously more effective than Cyprus in finding practical solutions to the problem.
On the contrary, in a series of circumstances, the State gives the impression that it is captive to narrow trade union interests that regularly threaten strikes and that it listens attentively to unfounded and unsubstantiated demands of the collective bodies of nurses, demands that make it difficult to serve patients without interruption and hinder the smooth development of the health sector in our country.
Because it is only a matter of time before the whole situation evolves from a problem of doctors and hospitals to a problem of patients and the quality of health services…
… PIS, PASIN and OEB emit a distress signal and submit a final public appeal to the State to respond immediately with practical solutions that will aim to quickly cover the gap.
