Health minister to investigate alleged patient mistreatment

On Saturday, Health Minister Popi Kanari announced that she received a report regarding a complaint filed with health services. The complaint alleged mistreatment of a patient, who was reportedly locked in a cupboard by a nurse.

Speaking on the side lines of her visit to Makarios hospital, she said that the ministry has received the report and is looking into the claims made.

She added that if the nurse is found to have committed the alleged acts, blame will be assigned as an example for all.

The nurse, who it emerged committed the act last week, has been suspended from his duties.

Speaking on live TV last week the wife of the man, Maro Georgiou, said that her husband had gone to Nicosia General for a hip surgery. The next day, she added, a nurse came and told her husband that he needed a blood transfusion.

When asking the nurse why the transfusion was needed, the nurse told him that it was doctor’s orders. Accepting this premise, the man consented to being given blood.

While receiving blood, the man complained that it was dripping off his hand and onto the bed, staining it, so he called the nurse for help.

“As soon as the nurse arrived, he [the nurse] pulled out the intravenous line and attempted to move the bed,” Georgiou said.

The patient then asked where he was being taken, to have the nurse say that he is being taken to intensive care for monitoring.

Instead, the nurse took the man to a storage cupboard, leaving him there for seven hours from 11.30pm until 6am, just before the shift change.