Even the hallways of emergency departments in state hospitals all across Cyprus on Tuesday were lined with patients waiting to get a room since respiratory virus season is still in full swing.
As of noon Tuesday, the emergency departments in the public sector had reached 100% of their occupancy, Philenews reports.
The same was almost the same in the private sector where the three largest private hospitals linked with the General Health Scheme said they had one bed or none at all in their emergency departments.
The winter triple threat of flu, Covid-19 and RSV is hitting mainly the island’s elderly.
However, hospitals were facing capacity and resource challenges long before the pandemic hit, in large part because the people who are being admitted are sicker than they were before.
“The need to increase the number of emergency department beds available in Cyprus is huge,” an insider said.
“We have been warning for years that planning is a must, the needs should be properly calculated and then proceed with the setting up of emergency department beds because the problem, which is an international one over the recent years, exists permanently in Cyprus as well,” he added.
