President Nikos Christodoulides is to visit villages in the Tillyria region and the town of Polis Chrysochous on Friday.

The government said the visits are part of Christodoulides’ “policy to listen to and address the real needs and concerns of society”, and a continuation of a visit he made to the Troodos mountain village of Amiantos in October.

It added that he will “announce and refer extensively to new projects and political actions to strengthen the areas”.

The way-stop in Polis Chrysochous will be seen as timely by the town’s mayor Yiotis Papachristofi, who had on Wednesday penned a letter to Health Minister Michael Damianos calling for a new hospital to be built in his town.

He said that his municipality needs “special support” from the central government to be able to “ensure proper and adequate medical care for its residents”, pointing out that the existing building has “significant problem”.

He added that parts of the building were built during British colonial rule and that they therefore “no longer meet the area’s modern needs”.

Additionally, he said, the construction of a new hospital would likely take around five years, and as such, an “immediate political decision” should be taken by the central government to allow construction to begin and “respond to the growing needs of the people of the region”.