The oncology department at Nicosia General Hospital, Cyprus’s largest medical facility, experienced two sewage floods within five days, causing part of the false ceiling to collapse and leaving a persistent foul odour in patient areas.
The incidents, which occurred on 24 and 29 November, affected the outpatient clinics and day care unit of the oncology department, located in the hospital’s basement. Both floods happened outside working hours.
The sewage system’s pipes run through the ceiling of the oncology services, making any malfunction a significant risk to staff and patients. Over the past decade, the basement has experienced at least five similar incidents, forcing the closure of several examination rooms due to severe damage.
The problem stems from two main issues: faulty sewage removal works discovered after the hospital’s construction and the facility’s lack of connection to Nicosia’s main sewerage system.
Since the State Health Services Organisation (SHSO) took over hospital management, pumps were installed to direct sewage into disposal tanks, with maintenance outsourced to a private contractor. The recent floods occurred due to technical failures in these pumps, flooding the entire basement area.
Hospital officials say a permanent solution would be connecting the facility to Nicosia’s main sewerage system. Meanwhile, management is considering relocating the affected oncology services while additional work is carried out to prevent future incidents.
Medical staff have warned hospital administration that patients could be at risk without proper measures, noting that injuries were only narrowly avoided when parts of the false ceiling collapsed last week.
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