The health minister called an emergency meeting last night to devise an action plan to deal with the worsening hospital overflow situation and the lack of hospital beds.
According to sources, the target of last night’s meeting organized by health minister Michalis Hadjipantelas was to secure sufficient hospital beds in order to accommodate coronavirus patients in the coming days.
The Federation of Patients Association of Cyprus (Osak) will request for Hadjipantelas to call a wide meeting with both public and private sector health representatives in order to devise a strategy for dealing with the pandemic.
Additional requests to be made by Osak will include enforcing short-term care units in state hospitals so that A & E (Accidents and Emergency) units are not used for treating coronavirus patients, as well as an official suggestion to the health minister for the operation of 24-hour infirmaries in every city in Cyprus.
According to Osak president Marios Kouloumas, patients suffering from serious illnesses such as cancer, as well as those coming in from the A & E units have been unable to receive proper treatment due to hospital overflow.
The need to increase the amount of hospital beds has brought on an intense reaction from the president of the Cyprus State Doctors’ Union (Pasyki) Sotiris Koumas, who spoke to Phileleftheros about the failure of the State Health Services Association (SHSO) to implement a plan which would provide adequate treatment to all patients.
