Filenews 8 July 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
Nurses with years of experience are fired and replaced by beginners and inexperienced nurses due to cost. Patients, inside the operating rooms, listen to dialogues that terrify them and some pay for the inexperience of the nurses who undertake their preparation. Hospitals "they operate as businesses". The number of hospitals and needs is increasing every day and in the lists "there is not a single nurse in unemployment".
The Ministry of Health is making efforts to solve the problem with the admission of nurses from abroad, however, it is confronted by the Greek language and the obstacles that are raised, mainly by the trade unions.
In the debate between the Minister of Health, Michalis Damianos, and members of the parliamentary committee on Human Rights, the continuous acquisitions of Cypriot hospitals by foreign investment funds.
The reason for the discussion was the analysis of the way in which palliative care and home care will be provided to patients, in the context of the bill that has been submitted to the Parliament, in the first case, and the law that has recently been passed (in the second case). (The Minister of Health referred to the two services, arguing for the Government's stance on the proposal for a law that the committee is discussing and provides for euthanasia).
"You talk about palliative care and home care, but I wonder where you will find nurses to do all this," said the chairwoman of the parliamentary committee, Irene Charalambidou, addressing Michalis Damianos.
«I know of a nursing home that has recently been bought out, that has fired all the experienced old nurses because their salaries were high and has hired beginners and inexperienced nurses. We have serious reports and the takeover of hospitals continues and no one knows where it will arrive. The need for profit lowers quality and the Commission for the Protection of Competition must finally intervene," he added.
«There was an incident in which the patient was already in the operating room and heard these nurses saying that one drug did not exist and deciding that they would give him another one and "there is no problem". The patient was listening to this dialogue," said Mrs. Charalambidou and went on to describe a second incident in which "the patient was in pain and was desperate, the nurses were telling him that it was okay and when we contacted the doctor and the doctor sent an experienced nurse and saw the patient, then they found the problem and helped the man."
Responding to the AKEL MP, the Minister of Health referred to the actions taken by his Ministry in recent times in order to ensure a number of nurses to cover the immediate needs of hospitals in Cyprus.
"But if it is considered that we can find 1000 fifty-year-old, experienced nurses to be employed in hospitals, I am sorry that is impossible," said Michalis Damianos.
"Following a campaign by the Ministry, the number of students admitted to nursing schools this year has increased. At the moment there is not a single nurse unemployed in Cyprus. Those who finish their studies go to hospitals."
"Beyond that, there are two ways to secure nurses. On the one hand, it is the increase of your students, so that you can have nurses later, and on the other hand, it is to bring in nurses from other countries. It is the prerequisite of the Greek language. We said to bring nurses and to certify the knowledge of the Greek language. We bumped into the qualifications and whether their studies are of the same level as our own nurses. We are trying to see if a legislative regulation should be made, but you understand that we are in consultation with the trade unions on these issues. No trade union accepts the arrival of nurses from abroad. This is also the role of the guilds. This dialogue is not easy," said the Minister of Health.
The shortage of nurses, said Michalis Damianos, "is not something that is observed only in Cyprus, it is global. We had a shortage of 570 nurses as Cyprus and we have already done our campaign which has paid off on new students".
Perhaps, the Minister of Health concluded, "we should now give more weight to the institution of the health caregiver. An attempt is being made by the OCYPY to expand this institution so that caregivers can be placed in some wards and thus free up nurses to cover the nursing needs in other departments. Training is done. It has been a constant effort for the last year".
