State hospitals wards and Intensive Care Units all across Cyprus have reached their limits with the State Health Services Organisation (Okypy) on Wednesday sounding alarm bells, Philenews reports.
Okypy has officially informed that all hospitals are way too overcrowded and that problems are anticipated in both patient service and ambulance response time.
“Over the past 24 hours, there has been an increased admission of patients to all Okypy hospitals and this has led to an overcrowding in mainly pathology and pulmonology wards as well as in Intensive Care Units (ICUs),” an Okypy spokesman said.
The increased occupancy of hospitals is attributed to the ongoing high activity of seasonal and other infections.
Director of Nicosia General Hospital, Marios Loizou, told Philenews that “as soon as the wards of hospitals are overcrowded and ambulances continue to transport patients to the A&E departments delays are then inevitable.”
“Because,” he added, “it is not easy moving patients to the various departments due to lack of beds.”
Despite the downward trend recorded in recent weeks in seasonal infections the admission of patients, especially elderly and senior patients, to the pathology and pulmonology wards continued, he also said.
“When an elderly person is admitted with pneumonia, it is not easy to discharge him/her soon, hence the bed remains occupied for as long as it takes for this patient to overcome the problem,” he added.
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