Nurses will be taking further measures against state health services organisation (Okypy) after both failed to reach an agreement on staffing issues during a meeting on Monday.

“We will escalate our measures, and we reserve whether it will be a strike or something else,” nurses’ union Pasyno general secretary Savvas Iacovou said following the lunchtime meeting.

Okypy had submitted a letter to nurses with a seven-point proposal aimed at addressing the understaffing that is occurring in public hospitals.

“Unfortunately, at the meeting, discussion on this issue was not on a fruitful basis. We were not given solutions to our satisfaction. The atmosphere was not very good, we had conflicts,” Iacovou said.

He added that they originally thought the seven-point proposal would be forward to the board of Okypy for approval, but that was not the case.

As Iacovou said, Okypy proposed to recruit only 15 nurses, which is not helpful as the issue of understaffing continues to exist.

The issue that was closed, he said, was only for the caregivers for whom positions will be advertised.

“The solutions we proposed to enable staff to work safely were not listened to. Staffing is not regulated by any legislation,” he added.

Further, Okypy promised that the staff will take their summer holidays, which he said the nurses view as impossible because of the understaffing.