TSIMA NEEDS AND AVAILABILITY OF NURSES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR - IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR THEY WANT GREEK, AND IN STATE HOSPITALS ALSO ENGLISH - Filenews 3/7 by Marilena Panayi
For the employment of nurses in the private sector, knowledge of the Greek language is required. However, for employment in state hospitals, knowledge of the English language is also required. The puzzle of staffing the health system of Cyprus with nursing staff does not seem to find its solution easily, since even the State Health Services Organization, which is called upon to proceed with the recruitment of 93 nurses (a number that emerged after consultation with the unions that warned of taking measures citing understaffing), as everything shows, it will be difficult for him to cope this time.
The number of nurses available for employment in the Organization's lists of appointees barely exceeds 120, of which, as the trade unions are already warning, some may not accept the appointment that will be offered to them.
At the same time, of course, the private sector is eagerly looking for nurses in order for private hospitals to be able to operate safely and within the requirements of the relevant legislation, while three bills are pending in Parliament that aim, among other things, to facilitate the employment of foreign nurses, graduates of Cypriot nursing schools and beyond, but also to partially relax the legislative requirements concerning the staffing of clinics and departments, in order to achieve staff savings.
As can be seen, the efforts to strengthen clinics and departments with health caregivers are falling on deaf ears, as provided for the public sector and the agreement reached several years ago between the Ministry of Health and the unions.
As the Minister of Health, Neophytos Charalambidis, reminded, speaking to "F", "the Ministry of Health is running a fast-paced program of training health caregivers, as provided for in the agreement in 2018 which aimed to reach levels where the number of nurses and caregivers in the wards is at 50%-50%". This, he said, "has never been achieved and the reality is that there is not a sufficient number of interested parties to attend the training."
According to information, OKYPY is currently making a parallel effort to identify those interested in training as health caregivers, which, however, is at an early stage.
The president of the PASYDY Nurses' Branch, Prodromos Argyridis, referred to the problem that may arise this time in the public sector during yesterday's meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Health, saying that "at the moment OKYPY has 93 approved nurse positions in its budget and it is doubtful whether we will be able to make these recruitments because the number of appointees available in the list of appointees of the Organization nurses, is proportionately very small."
As Mr. Argyridis later explained, speaking to "F", "in many cases nurses who are registered in the list do not accept their recruitment and possibly this time a similar phenomenon will be observed at a time when hospitals are understaffed".
The number of nurses who meet the criteria to be included in the lists of OKYPY is of course limited due to the requirement (which applies throughout the public service for officers of a similar salary scale), for knowledge of the English language, with knowledge of the Greek language being considered imperative.
On the part of OKYPY, according to information from "F", the recruitment process has begun and a few dozen nurses have already been hired.
