Doctors at Paphos A&E to strike on Friday

Doctors in Paphos’ general hospital A&E department will stage a three-hour strike on Friday over problems the state health services (Okypy) are blatantly ignoring, Pasyki union said on Tuesday.

The strike will start at 9am and is centered around the understaffed department.

Pasyki head Sotiris Koumas said there used to be 12 beds in the ER – still too few – but this has now been reduced to nine.

During the shift between midnight and morning, there is only one doctor on staff, he added. “This is incredibly dangerous both for patients and the doctor.” Nonetheless, this has been going on for months with no change, Koumas added.

He added the general hospitals in Limassol and Larnaca faced similar issues and doctors were tired of empty promises from Okypy.

Should the voices of doctors not be heard after the warning strike, measures will be escalated because there is no other choice, Koumas noted.

Last month, Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos described conditions at Paphos general hospital as “tragic, appalling and utterly shameful”.

Okypy hit back saying it refused to accept statements that conditions are horrible or that dangerous medicine is practiced there.

It conceded there are some “weaknesses” at the hospital, but that millions of euros will be set out in their budget to upgrade it.