Infant’s hospital transfer after CT scanner broke ‘was handled correctly’

The incident involving the transfer of a six-month-old baby with a head injury from the Paphos general hospital to a private hospital in Limassol after the computed tomography (CT) scanner in Paphos broke was handled correctly, state health services (Okypy) spokesman Charalambos Charilaou said on Thursday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), he said there was “no fault whatsoever” in the incident’s management.

The baby had been admitted to the Paphos general hospital having suffered a blow to the head, with doctors deeming it appropriate to perform a CT scan to be able to make a diagnosis.

However, the hospital’s CT scanner suffered a “mechanical breakdown”.

Charilaou said an agreement is in place between Okypy and a private hospital in Limassol to cover such eventualities in urgent cases, and that this procedure was followed.

As such, the baby was transported by ambulance to Limassol, where doctors decided that a CT scan was in fact not required.

Subsequently, the baby was transferred to the Nicosia general hospital, where it was seen by a neurosurgeon, before then being admitted to the Makarios hospital.

“Reports that [the baby] was transferred to the Limassol general hospital or first to the Makarios hospital and then to the Nicosia general hospital are not true. Accordingly, there was no fault whatsoever in the management of the incident,” Charilaou said.

On the matter of the CT scanner in Paphos, he said a “new, state-of-the-art CT scanner” has been installed, and that training on the new scanner will be completed “within days”, allowing it to enter into operation.