DOCTORS ARE FURIOUS ABOUT THE ABOLITION OF 24 POSITIONS - Filenews 16/4 by Marilena Panayi
The public doctors are furious with the Ministry of Health and the State Health Services Organization, who, in fact, through the Pancyprian Guild of Government Doctors, denounce "an intention for the targeted degradation of public hospitals".
The reason for the new confrontation, which seems to break out, is the abolition of 24 positions of doctors, of which 15 concerned doctors who have retired and were abolished by the Ministry of Health and the 9 positions of OKYPY that were removed from the annual budget of the Organization.
"The worst of all is that among the 9 positions of OKYPY there were 4 or 5 positions of psychiatrists, which causes us particular concern," the president of PASYKI, Sotiris Koumas, told "F", adding that "the continuous dismantling of mental health services at a time when needs have skyrocketed and we are talking about a sector in which only the public sector can offer full services, in terms of inpatient care, for us it sends very negative messages in terms of the intentions, either of OKYPY or of the Ministry of Health".
The abolition of positions in general, the president of PASYKI continued, "has given us the impression that a deliberate and targeted attempt is being made to weaken state hospitals".
As a union, "we do not know which specialties these 15 retirements concern but in any case for us the abolition of positions has its importance when we are all talking about upgrading state hospitals. Whether some people like it or not, upgrading hospitals without doctors is not possible."
Because he added, "someone can tell us that positions are often advertised for recruitment, and this is a fact, we have to separate some things because our concern has to do with what we see and experience every day in hospitals and things are not so simple."
The Ministry of Health, he explained, "from the moment that 15 doctors, civil servants seconded to OKYPY have retired, it comes and abolishes the positions. Beyond that, however, the budget of the Organization goes through both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance before going to Parliament. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance not only did not ensure that these retirements came to be added as vacancies to the budget of OKYPY, but to their knowledge another 9 positions were removed from the positions that existed in the Organization. In other words, a total of 24 positions have been abolished. When two ministries agree in this direction, we are concerned about the future of state hospitals."
"Hospitals operate with a structure. In fact, with the structure we followed when they were under the Ministry of Health, which was adopted by OKYPY. When you abolish positions, things change," he added.
"When you find out that in the 2026 budget there is not a single new position of medical officer, then you are definitely worried," Sotiris Koumas concluded, stressing that "PASYKI will ask for official information and will definitely come back".
