Nursing staff at Larnaca general hospital staged a one-hour work stoppage on Wednesday morning in protest over longstanding problems, including overcrowding and staff exhaustion.

The spontaneous stoppage, held between 8am and 9am, was announced by Pasydy’s general nursing staff branch.

According to the union, the main reason for the action was severe overcrowding recorded in recent days, which has resulted in patients remaining at the accident and emergency department for hours while waiting for a hospital bed to become available.

Hospital management had opened five additional beds, staffed through overtime, but Pasydy said the measure had failed to resolve the problem.

Nursing staff were now “at the limits of professional burnout”, the union said, adding that nurses were being required to work continuous overtime to meet demand.

It warned that the situation was putting both the physical and mental health of nurses and patient safety at risk.

The union called on state health services organisation Okypy to provide “substantive and permanent” solutions to Larnaca hospital’s longstanding problems, rather than temporary measures which it said merely paper over the problem.

Meanwhile around 11,000 hourly-paid workers are expected to take part in Thursday’s strike. Some 6,500 are hourly-paid government employees, while a further 5,500 work for Okypy and school boards and are outside the government payroll.

The finance ministry on Tuesday urged unions to reconsider the strike and return to negotiations, saying their demands would cost €50 million over the three-year collective agreement.

It said the central point of disagreement was a demand for a general eight per cent pay increase.

Thursday’s strike is part of an ongoing dispute between the government and unions over the renewal of the collective agreement covering hourly-paid government workers for the 2025-2027 period.

It will be the second 24-hour nationwide strike by hourly-paid government workers this year. Workers staged what unions described as their first such strike since the establishment of the Republic on June 24, demanding pay increases and improved employment conditions.