Polis residents postpone planned protest over hospital closure

Polis Chrysochous residents have postponed a gathering planned for Saturday to protest against the downgrading of their local hospital.

Mayor of Polis Chrysochous, Yiotis Papachristofi, has repeatedly made the case that the reopening of the local inpatient ward is crucial because without it patients are forced to drive all the way to Paphos –an hour-long drive for some of the area’s remoter residents, many of them elderly and past driving age, who, up until recently, were served by the Polis hospital.

The planned mobilisation, Papachristofis said, had been organised to again demand the re-opening but is currently on hold due to an upcoming visit by the health minister, expected October 29.

The mayor stated that the ward had successfully and properly served Polis and surrounding villages for decades, and must be put back into operation, and expressed the hope that a solution would be hammered out during the health minister’s upcoming visit.

The operation of the Polis inpatient ward was suspended two years ago, following a decision of the ministry of health and Okypy, to facilitate the transfer of nursing staff and doctors from the hospital to Covid-19 wards at the Paphos and Limassol general hospitals.