No lives are at risk as a result of the delays caused by the decision to cancel a contract for the construction of a building which will house a new neonatal intensive care unit at the Makarios children’s hospital in Nicosia, state health services organisation (Okypy) spokesman Charalambos Charilaou said on Saturday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, he said of the contract’s cancellation that “we did what we had to do”, and added that the contract was both “problematic” and “at a dead end”.

He rejected allegations that the project’s delay may leave newborn babies in danger, saying that the existing unit has “the best” staff and “the best equipment”, before adding that the only problem facing the current unit is a lack of space.

He added that the contract had been terminated “with the consent of the contractor”, and that as such, there will be no legal recourse over it.

Additionally, he said, Okypy “took the necessary steps” and recovered €1.3 million worth of guarantees, and that going forward, it is hoped that a new contractor will be found and that the new building will be completed by September 2027.

The new contract, he said, will be worth €6.4m – the same as the previous contract.

On Friday, the miracle babies association had described Okypy’s promise that the new building would be completed in 2027 as “an illusory dream for premature babies and their families”, while earlier in the year, MPs had raised their own concerns about the project.

Disy MP Savia Orfanidou said she was “saddened to hear that construction is yet to begin”, while Akel MP Nikos Kettiros lamented that “a fence was placed, and a couple of holes drilled in the ground” and that “that’s it”, regarding construction of the new unit.

He said the government had been “peddling promises and hot air” over the matter.

Diko MP Chrysanthos Savvides, meanwhile, said the existing neonatal intensive care unit currently operates at 150 per cent of its capacity.

“You realise that this puts at risk the lives of newborns, babies that is, who should be born at 36 or 38 weeks but instead are being delivered at 26, 28 or 30 weeks,” he said.