Filenews 22 October 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
Every day 170, mostly young, nurses travel from Limassol and Paphos to Nicosia in order to staff the General Hospital of the capital. As a result, they cannot stand the hassle and resign from the State Health Services Organization in search of work in their province of residence.
These phenomena, said the president of the nursing branch of PASYDY, Prodromos Argyrides, speaking to "F", "are not at all irrelevant to the level of rents in Limassol, which acts as a deterrent for our young people in terms of their attendance at the CUT based in Limassol, but also to the lack of nurses which does exist in Cyprus and results in the increased demand from the private sector leading to the resignation of nurses new to the public sector".
"Currently, 135 nurses from Limassol and about 35 more from Paphos are coming and going in Nicosia. These people work in shifts, and after their shift they take the bus and return to their city. In fact, for Paphos we also have the problem that on weekends and holidays there is no permanent bus route", said Mr. Argyridis.
As he explained, "the fact that the state nursing school is based in Limassol, in conjunction with the very high rents in this city, acts as a deterrent for high school seniors and their families who live in Nicosia or Larnaca or free Famagusta, to choose nursing for their studies."
As a result, "for a few years now, there has been the phenomenon of not having a satisfactory number of nursing school graduates coming from Nicosia and slowly, it seems, this trend will intensify".
"It is obvious that the increased demand for nursing staff, due to the shortage that exists, is a way out for nurses who come and go from other districts to Nicosia. A person cannot go back and forth from Paphos to Nicosia, after night shifts, etc. for a long time. They resign and leave. For example, out of a number of 30 nurses hired in the previous months, six have already left."
The state, Mr. Argyrides continued, "must find solutions that will address the problem of the shortage of nurses in general, but also the problem that seems to exist with the very small number of nursing graduates who come from Nicosia. There are solutions, such as the operation of a branch of the CUT school in Nicosia or the granting of incentives for rents in Limassol, etc."
The shortage of nurses, he said in conclusion, "in the coming years will be even greater if we do not take care now. We had some admissions this year to nursing schools, but the problem is not solved with 100 or 200 nurses a year. Let's think that at the same time we have retirements and in the next two years around 100 nurses will retire from the public sector."
