The current situation in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Nicosia general hospital treating patients with coronavirus is not due to understaffing but because of staff absences due to Covid-19, spokesperson of the state health services organisation (SHSO) Charalambos Charilaou told CNA on Monday.
According to Charilaou, state hospitals have been treating on average around 220 patients with Covid-19 daily and expect to see further stabilisation or possible reduction in numbers within the coming days. He said the situation is manageable.
Responding to the calls earlier today by nurses’ union PASYNO and the nurses branch of PASYDY civil servants’ union, for a prompt solution to the understaffing problems faced in the Nicosia general hospitals’ ICU treating Covid patients, Charilaou said the issue does not concern understaffing. He said that there is a number of nurses who are absent because either they are positive for coronavirus or because they are close contacts or because they are on parental leave because their children are ill or are close contacts and this creates various problems.
The effort of the Organisation, he added, is to strengthen as much as possible the hospital departments which present any problems. He added that SHSO, that runs public hospitals, has also given an incentive for overtime compensation.
“In a time of crisis we all need to do our utmost to be able to respond adequately and we thank the nurses for all the superhuman effort they make,” Charilaou concluded.
The two unions said earlier in a statement that their members working at the Nicosia general hospital`s ICU treating Covid-19 patients went on an impromptu protest last Friday due to the understaffing problem but also the fact that the unit has been exceeding its capacity lately.
