Filenews 12 November 2021 - by Marilena Panagi
11.26% of all public nurses were absent last Tuesday on sick leave, long-term leave, maternity leave or parental leave, while an additional number of nurses were on rest leave. This means that around 460 nurses (out of a total of about 3,000 nurses) nationwide, were absent from work.
The large number of leave received by the nursing staff of public hospitals and ways of replenishing employees during their long absence, was examined yesterday by the Health Committee of the House. The reactions of the MPs differed per faction, while on the part of the CySEC, data analysis was carried out and it was stressed that even preventively during the recruitment of nurses, a 25% is added to the number in order to address the phenomenon of long-term leave that constantly leads to "fictitious" understaffing of hospitals.
In detail and according to the data of the CySEC, which concern the data of last Tuesday, but clearly show the situation:
A total of 121 nurses were absent on the same day on sick leave. Another 117 were absent on long sick leave, 59 on maternity leave, 2 on parental leave. This corresponds to 11.26% of the staff. In addition, another 159 nurses were absent on rest leave.
As far as the large provincial hospitals are concerned, they were out of duty on that day:
- Nicosia Hospital: 51 on sick leave, 55 on long-term leave, 24 on maternity leave. 12.82% of all hospital nurses. In addition, 62 nurses were absent on leave of rest.
- Limassol Hospital: 26 on sick leave, 15 on long-term leave, 6 on maternity leave and 4 on parental leave. 7.2%. In addition, 41 nurses were absent on rest leave.
- Larnaka Hospital: 5 on sick leave, 16 on long-term leave, 10 on maternity leave. 8.9%. Another 19 were absent on leave of rest.
- Paphos Hospital: 11 on sick leave, 7 on long-term leave, 8 on maternity leave. Percentage 9.5%. Another 13 were absent with a rest permit
- Famagusta Hospital: 4 on sick leave, 6 on long-term leave, 7 on maternity leave, 1 on parental leave. Percentage 9.4%. In addition, 9 nurses were absent with rest leave.
- Makarios Hospital: 17 with sick leave, 12 with long-term leave, 4 with maternity leave and 1 with parental leave. 10%. Another 15 were absent on leave to rest.
As far as the smaller hospitals are concerned, last Tuesday 22.9% of the nursing staff at Troodos Hospital (Kyperounta) was absent, with the numbers of course calculated according to the total number of staff, which in this case is small compared to the larger hospitals. Specifically, 6 were absent on sick leave, 5 on long-term leave. At Polis Chrysochous Hospital, the percentage of absences was 9.5%, since 2 nurses were absent on sick leave and long-term leave. From all the hospitals, 9 nurses are absent with unpaid leave, of which 4 are at the Limassol Hospital.
Different reactions on the part of Members
In their statements after the end of the meeting, the Members of the Committee took a rather different position, since some expressed their satisfaction with the explanations given by the CSO and others referred to the understaffing of the hospitals.
Specifically, the Deputy Chair of the Health Committee, Savvia Orfanidou, stated that "the CySEC has informed that there has been an agreement with the MPs from 2019-20 to staff all the services that provide medical services and to date since 2019, 382 nurses have been hired in our public hospitals, 11 of whom will soon take up their duties". Mrs. Orfanidou added that "in the constant request of the guilds for further staffing, the representative of the CySEC, has stated that they have never denied that they are discussing further staffing and recruitment of nurses".
AKEL MP Marina Nikolaou said that "the Government, despite the announcements since 2016, has done little in relation to the cry of despair of the nurses, adding that the verbal recognition of the value of the work of the nurses is not enough".
DIKO MP Chrysanthos Savvidis said that the Committee received complaints from PASYNO for understaffing in the Neonates Unit of the Makarios Hospital.
Dipa MP and rapporteur of the issue Michalis Giakoumis, said that "the practice used by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance for public hospitals since 1997, was to secure positions in the state budget to replace long-term sick and maternity leave. This practice, the CYSO stopped in 2019 to apply it and in combination with the admission of young nurses, the problem has grown and unfortunately, as it seems, continues to swell."
More hired to fill gaps
As he said, speaking before the Committee, the representative of the CySEC, Charalambos Charilaou, the Organization, precisely because the phenomenon of the large number of leave received by the nursing staff is well known, "every time there will be recruitments, it takes into account the needs of an additional 25% in order not to create gaps". As he characteristically said, "if we need 1,000 nurses, we estimate 1,250." At the same time, he pointed out that since 2019, more than 380 nurses have been recruited.
