Cyprus’s private hospitals will disrupt services unless the government acts immediately on the nurse shortage, the sector’s chief warned on Friday.
Marios Karaiskakis, president of the Cyprus Private Hospitals Association, said facilities are operating at breaking point and can’t wait for yet another study whilst wards run dangerously short-staffed.
“We’ve run out of words. We needed nurses yesterday and they’re telling us about a new study,” Karaiskakis told state radio. “There’s no other option – we’ll take measures even though we absolutely don’t want to cause problems for patients. They’re not giving us any choice.”
Private hospitals have been pushing for solutions since before Christmas. They got promises, a timeline, and precisely nothing delivered.
Bill killed by unions
Parliament was set to pass legislation letting private hospitals hire foreign nurses more easily. Trade unions blocked it.
Now the government wants a fresh study instead of action. “Well no, there’s no more room for that,” Karaiskakis said. “We’re operating at the limit when it comes to nursing staff.”
The current rules are absurd, he added. Foreign nurses graduate from Cyprus nursing schools with Cypriot degrees and fluent Greek – then get told they need a master’s degree to work here. Cypriots don’t face the same requirement.
“They’ll drag us to the European courts,” Karaiskakis said.
Private hospitals have tried everything – meetings at the ministry, sessions in Parliament, repeated memoranda. “We’ve been shouting, begging. We say the same things over and over. Nothing happens. We’ve run out of words.”
His message to the government was blunt: “This is it. If we don’t see solutions now, the next time we go public it will be to announce we’re taking measures.”
