The health sector is heading for turbulence as nursing unions’ request for retirement at age 60 threatens to worsen existing staff shortages that have already forced private hospitals to reduce bed capacity and postpone surgeries.
Strong protests and warnings from private hospitals about reducing beds and postponing surgical operations due to nursing shortages in late July remain very recent, and it must be considered certain that if the unions’ request advances in dialogue before solutions are found for private hospital staffing, the Health Ministry will find itself in a difficult position.
The unions’ argument about fatigue and health problems developed by older nurses due to night shift work cannot be ignored, and the fact that several European countries have already proceeded with related regulations is highly relevant.
Pan-Cyprian Nurses Union general secretary Iakovos Iakovou emphasised that any new regulation must be made carefully to avoid creating hospital problems due to reduced nurse numbers, stressing that parallel with changing retirement limits, other actions must be taken, such as promoting the profession to attract more students.
“Looking at campaigns by the Health Ministry, there is an increasing trend of graduates from Nursing Schools, and we already see double the number of graduations compared to previous years. Incentives need to be given to students to choose the profession, and I believe our proposal is another incentive for young people to choose the profession,” he said.
Iakovou supported the nurses’ request by citing practices already applied in other European countries. “If we want to progress as Europe progresses, Cyprus must also progress. In countries like Italy, France, Spain, nurses retire at 60,” he said, explaining that “nurses over 60 tend to have more problems, taking more sick leave and holidays, whilst care quality also tends to decline.”
“Nursing is not like other jobs; you need to be on night shifts for 12 hours, you must be alert and active, and I don’t think any other profession has such a health burden on the worker,” he noted characteristically, citing police officers as an example of those who retire earlier.
PASYDY Nurses Branch president Prodromos Argyridis said this specific request had been submitted in the past by PASYDY, including increased regular leave for shift workers, but was rejected.
He argued such regulation “benefits not only the employee but also the state, since when a high-salary employee leaves and receives a pension that won’t equal their salary, and the state hires a new employee with a lower salary, there clearly won’t be serious financial impact”.
Both unions now await the government’s position and relevant ministries’ stance. Private hospitals also await the final position, having expressed strong disagreement behind the scenes with union positions since yesterday.
Given these circumstances, the Health Ministry will be called upon to manage a new front from the first week of September onwards.
