Filenews 15 February 2023 - by Marilena Panayi
Intensive Care Units nationwide are overcrowded or operate in a marginal state, while in the public sector, where the needs are much greater, when the need arises, patients are intubated outside the ICU, and remain in wards until a bed is released in a Unit and transferred.
The cause is seasonal infections that lead to a large number of citizens in the ICU, especially the elderly. The ageing of the population and the comorbidities that this entails, and the many, complex and serious surgeries that are performed daily in the hospitals of the General Health System.
Yesterday, shortly after noon, ICUs in the public sector had reached almost 100% of their occupancy. The same was happening in the private sector, where the three largest private hospitals of the GHS that have Intensive Care Units informed that they had one or no free ICU beds.
"The need for an increase in ICU beds in Cyprus is enormous," Marios Karaiskakis, president of the Pancyprian Association of Private Hospitals, told "F". "For years we have been warning that a plan must be made, the needs must be properly calculated and we must proceed with the creation of ICU beds because the problem, which has been presented internationally in recent years, now exists permanently in Cyprus as well." On the one hand, he explained, "at this time we have seasonal infections. This may not be something permanent but we constantly have comorbidities. Life expectancy has increased, people the longer they live, the more needs they have. Finally, we cannot overlook the fact that serious and complex surgeries are performed in Cyprus that involve hospitalization in the ICU, either preventively or because there is a reason." All this, concluded the president of PASIN, "we must take into account, sit together, work together, and come up with a design that is safe and meets our needs".
In the private sector, yesterday at 3 pm, the ICUs in Apollonion hospital, Aretaeio hospital and Mediterranean hospital, were overcrowded. "From time to time a bed is released but after a few hours, it is re-occupied," he told "F".
As far as the public sector is concerned, and as the spokesperson of the SHSO, Charalambos Charilaou, told "F", "all ICUs were close to 100% of their occupancy with some being overcrowded".
"As SHSO, we have significantly increased our ICU beds. Previously, Nicosia Hospital had 17 beds, now it has 33. In the Limassol hospital, we had 8 beds, now we have 15, while a closed ICU operated and in the Larnaca hospital with another 10 beds". The SHSO task force, Mr. Harilaou said, "is constantly on alert."
Asked to comment on a case of a patient who, while he was intubated yesterday, was hospitalized in a simple ward and not in an ICU, Mr. Charilaou explained that, "in some cases, and when there is no free ICU bed, the patient is intubated and transferred temporarily and with all safety measures to a simple ward until we have a bed available. It is a practice that is not only applied by the SHSO and is certainly not applied only in Cyprus".
