Our View: Union pressure leaves hospitals short of nurses

The president of the Cyprus association of private hospitals (Pasin), Marios Karaiskakis, could not hide his anger and frustration with the authorities, speaking about the nursing shortage on state radio on Friday morning.

“We have run out of words,” he said. “We need nurses yesterday and they are talking about a new study,” he complained. While private hospitals did not want to inconvenience patients, they had been left with no choice but to take measures, Karaiskakis warned. Would they stop taking patients, would they stop carrying out operations, or would they just close their doors completely? It was not clear, but we are sure this is not what the private hospitals want.

Pasin feels, with ample justification, that it has been taken for a ride by the health ministry, which has singularly failed to come up with any solution for nursing staff shortages. “We have been shouting, pleading, we have had meetings, we say the same things, we give the same memos, we go to the ministry, we go to the House, nothing,” said Karaiskakis. There had been a meeting before Christmas, but the promises made by the health ministry were not kept and the deadlines set were ignored, he said.

It is clear the reason there has been no solution was because the government bowed to the pressure of the public sector nursing unions. The health ministry had prepared a bill that would open the way for the employment of foreign nurses, that received their degrees at Cyprus universities. The bill was shelved, because of the unions’ reaction, and Pasin was informed that another study would be carried out, despite the desperate situation. This was what the unions demanded, although there had already been a study.

Powerful public sector unions want the shortage to remain because it ensures the continuous rise of nurses’ wages. If the ministry wanted to solve the problem it could have reduced the ridiculously high nurses to bed ratio at public hospitals, enshrined in law, which is double the ratio at private hospitals. Unions would never allow this to happen.

Another solution, discussed and theoretically agreed, was for the discriminatory law stipulating higher qualifications as a requirement for the employment of foreign nurses to be amended. According to this union-inspired law foreign nurses that finish Cypriot universities and speak Greek can only be employed at Cyprus hospitals if they also have a post-graduate nursing degree! Cypriots can be employed with just a Bachelor’s degree but not foreigners. This is legalised discrimination, which the government should be looking to end.

We have reached the point at which decisions must be taken for the good of the patients and the health service. The health ministry cannot be intimidated by the unions.