Unions representing state doctors on Thursday refuted reports that lives were put at risk during the 48-hour strike, complaining of a concerted attack via the media to besmirch them.

In parliament, Moisis Lambrou, the head of a doctors’ trade union, said all serious patient incidents occurring during the 48 hours were dealt with.

“Anything else that has been heard is inaccurate,” Lambrou insisted.

He referred for example to a patient who was admitted to a state hospital after suffering a heart attack on Tuesday evening.

“The incident was handled, and the patient is in good health,” said the trade union rep.

Sotiris Koumas, head of the Pasyki state doctors union, alluded to the treatment of cancer patients.

He said that some scheduled chemotherapy sessions had to be postponed during the strike, but they were carried out on Thursday; the rest would be carried out on Friday.

For her part, Christina Yiannaki, the permanent secretary at the health ministry, stated that 120 patient incidents were handled on the first day of the strike – Tuesday – and another 112 on the second day.

The running of the state hospitals – operating with skeleton staff – during the two days had been “successful”, she asserted.

The discussion took place at the House health committee, taking stock of the doctors’ strike and what led to it.

The industrial action is the result of a dispute between the doctors and the state health services organisation (Okypy) over the payment of performance-based bonuses. Doctors insist they are owed €4.5 million in financial incentives for 2023. Okypy had offered them €4.1m in July, before an independent analysis found that they were owed just €2.5 million, infuriating the doctors.

This analysis got a great deal of attention in parliament. In a bid to get some answers, MPs summoned representatives of Deloitte, the company that had carried out the study.

But parliamentarians were given access only to a part of the Deloitte analysis. It emerged that a section of the analysis – which included working assumptions and disclaimers – was not shown to MPs.

The doctors insist that these disclaimers ‘prove’ that the €2.5 million was a suggested number, open to leeway.

Okypy had commissioned Deloitte to carry out the analysis.

Under pressure from MPs, a senior executive of Okypy agreed to disclose the other parts of the analysis. Kypros Stavridis, executive director of Okypy, promised to hand over the documents by Friday.

In another twist, Koumas of the Pasyki union alleged that months ago he had spoken on the phone with a Deloitte officer, who at the time told him the amount in performance-based bonuses was €4.5 million.

Giorgos Pantelides, the Deloitte officer in question, neither confirmed nor denied this conversation had taken place.