Coronavirus: Situation in hospitals critical, private sector could do ‘more to help’

The situation in state hospitals is critical, state health services organisation Okypy said on Tuesday after record numbers in admissions of patients with Covid-19 were recorded in the last few days, saying more cooperation is needed from the private sector.

Admissions have been steadily rising in recent days with state hospitals treating a record 228 coronavirus patients on Tuesday.

Okypy spokesman Charalambos Charilaou told CyBC that the situation was critical. He said that around 5.4 per cent of diagnosed cases need hospital treatment. Of these, 10.2 per cent will need treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU).

“We must be alert, act quickly to be able to respond sufficiently,” Charilaou said. He added there is an action plan for securing more hospital beds but that more cooperation was necessary from the private sector.

He said that the reluctance by private hospitals to take in other patients, such as with chronic illnesses makes matters worse. He accused the private sector of only taking in patients whose condition will not be expensive for them to treat.

He said they insist on taking on “easier cases, that bring more profit” and not people who will need to stay longer in hospital.

The public sector cannot deal with the pandemic alone and at the same time also treat serious and difficult cases since it will not be able to secure the necessary staff for the ICUs and patient wards, Charilaou said.

He added that there has been some cooperation as 17 ICU cases were sent to the private sector but that Okypy would like for them to also take in general medicine cases.

“Within Gesy, we are all partners and we must cooperate to tackle the pandemic,” Charilaou said.