Nurses complain of dangers, stage strike

Ongoing and unacceptable dangers faced by their staff are a grave issue, the Pancyprian Nurses and Midwives’ union said on Monday laying the blame with the ministries of labour and justice as well as the police and state health services (Okypy).

Earlier nurses had staged a two-hour work stoppage outside the Nicosia general hospitalin the wake of an attempted stabbing at the facility’s emergency department over the weekend, while a meeting was underway at the Presidential Palace to discuss the matter.

In an official statement, the nurses’ union expressed its concern that although hospital safety issues have been highlighted for over ten years (since 2013), measures taken have not adequately addressed the situation.

“The state needs to comprehensively take on [international regulations] for the prevention and handling of such incidents [of violence], including employers legally mandated responsibilities,” the union said.

If this is not carried out, the union will seek recourse for the state’s failures with the International Labour Office, the International Council of Nursing, the International Confederation of Midwives, and EU bodies, it warned.

Nurses’ unions and medical staff at the hospital’s A&E denounced the “extreme” incident on Saturday, which is being investigated as a murder attempt, during which a man who arrived seeking aid, pulled out a knife and tried to assault another patient, then punched hospital staff, including a female nurse.

The man, named by police as Christos Modestou, aged 29, was intercepted by security officers and later released.

Modestou is now being sought for the crimes of attempted murder, intended bodily harm, threats, assault with actual bodily harm, and possession and transportation of an offensive instrument.

This latest incident was the “straw which broke the camel’s back,” a representative for the nurses’ union told state broadcaster CyBC.

“This is not an isolated incident and we demand our staff be able to carry out their duties in safety,” the nurse said.

He said the basic demand is for a greater police presence at A&E departments and for officers there to have the authority to make arrests.

The nurses charge that one of the problems is that guards are currently only stationed at the entrances to the emergency department.

According to the nurse, the number of allotted security staff started falling after the Covid-19 pandemic.

State health services (Okypy) spokesman Charalambos Charilaou criticised the way security officials reacted at the weekend but explained those at hospitals are on secondment from the police, while only half are directly employed by the service.

“These officers are there to patrol the hospital grounds as there are many other areas which need to be secured [other than A&E] such as labs and external surgeries,” Charilaou said.

The special officers’ role is supposed to be preemptive and they are not authorised to make arrests, he confirmed. In the event that back up is needed, officers from the near-by Latsia police station are called on, he said.

Over the weekend in the wake of the stabbing attempt, the Cyprus Medical Association (CMA) called for an urgent reviewof safety measures at accident and emergency departments in the island’s hospitals.

“Doctors and nurses are dedicated to protecting the […] lives of the public and must not be [endangered] let alone in a place like an A&E department, where the conditions are already demanding,” CMA said.

It called on Okypy and the health ministry to review safety measures which it said were clearly insufficient.