All quiet on the strike front
By Elias Hazou

Nicosia General sees through mercifully quiet first 24 hours

AN EERIE calm settled over the casualty ward at Nicosia’s General Hospital yesterday. Just as well, since any serious injury would have been referred elsewhere because of the government doctors’ ongoing strike.

State hospitals across the island were working on skeleton staff, after marathon talks between doctors and the government broke down late Tuesday night.

The physicians say conditions at hospitals are intolerable, and have staged the 48-hour walkout to draw attention to their demands, which include better career prospects, retraining and salary adjustments.

But even though crises were avoided yesterday, the public is bracing for a planned indefinite strike starting 30 January,

“No one was in any danger because of the strike,” said Stavros Stavrou, head of the government doctors’ union PASYKI. He was speaking at a news conference convened to explain why his colleagues were forced to take extreme measures.

According to Stavrou, state hospitals in all districts reported no emergencies yesterday.
In any case, he added, there was enough staff on duty to handle heart attacks, strokes and internal bleeding incidents

The tempo at the emergency ward at Nicosia’s general hospital was languid yesterday afternoon. At the admissions desk, doctors and nurses were visibly stress-free, mostly handling paperwork.

One doctor there explained to the Mail that the policy during the strike was to refer serious injuries to private clinics with which arrangements had previously been made.

“But I haven’t seen anything like that since I clocked in,” he added.

Despite the lack of work, the staffing of the ward was not discernibly less than normally, as medics and interns dawdled around.

“We’re not strike-busters, mind you,” joked a nurse who eavesdropped on our conversation with the doctor.

Although most of the hospital’s sections were shut, the oncology ward was operating with what seemed sufficient manpower. But things there were easy-going as well, and the Mail had to break up a nurses’ coffee break to get a comment.

“Everyone thinks the strike means that we’re closed down. Not true,” said one nurse.

Asked why there was no head doctor in charge, she explained that during the afternoons MDs were on call, but that this was always the case.

“Today we have treated a few patients with chemotherapy and sent them home. We’ve had no problems whatsoever,” she added.

Asked whether the doctors would make good on their threat of staging an indefinite strike starting Monday, PASYKI’s Stavrou told the Mail they would “assess the situation” during the week and decide accordingly.

He went on to describe as “totally unsatisfactory” Tuesday’s last-minute meeting with Health Minister Andreas Gavrielides.

One of the main bones of contention is manpower. Doctors demand additional physicians and nurses to support the new Nicosia and Famagusta district hospitals.

But while the Health Ministry has promised to make structural improvements, it says it will do this with the existing staff, because budget constraints currently prevent the hiring of more people.

At the news conference earlier in the day, Stavrou and colleagues said doctors typically had to see 30 to 50 patients a day, bringing into question the quality of treatment and attention they could provide under these circumstances.

PASYKI deputy chairman Petros Petrides said the severe shortage of beds at hospitals frequently forced doctors to engage in horse-trading among themselves to decide who gets admitted and who doesn’t.

Stavrou added that it usually took two to three hours for a doctor to see a badly wounded person.

“This situation could easily lead to loss of life,” he noted.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2005
Source: LaborStart