Paphos hospital staff threaten ‘consequences’ in Okypy spat

Unions on Wednesday charged they would take “drastic measures” if state health services (Okypy) did not hire permanent hourly-paid staff at Paphos general hospital.

In a statement, Payek Peo and Oekdy Sek charged the blood dialysis unit in particular was in need of more staff, and said Okypy had promised to take action over the matter.

They accused Okypy of being untrustworthy as it was not implementing its commitments to employ permanent hourly-paid staff to cover the new blood dialysis unit.

The unions warned there would be a chain reaction over what they described as Okypy dragging its feet over the process.

They said interviews had taken place on August 8 and 9, but to date, no one had been hired. Additionally, the organisation has also failed to make a number of existing employees permanent staff, the union said.

Should Okypy not take action in the next month, then employees will take dynamic action immediately, they warned.

Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos said in July after he was re-elected to his post that an ambitious but feasible goal he has is to transform the Paphos hospital into a university hospital and that it should be linked to a medical school.