Nurses fumed on Monday over reported plans to cut back the minimal Greek language requirement for third nation nationals who want to practise nursing in Cyprus.
Commerce union Pasydy expressed “sturdy concern and disquiet” over the reported plans.
“We can’t permit individuals’s security and the standard of healthcare supplied to be sacrificed on the altar of serving monetary pursuits by disregarding the human issue and inserting the affected person second,” they mentioned.
They identified that the present regulation designates the Cyprus Nursing and Midwifery Council because the competent physique which determines the “minimal protected degree” of data of the Greek language for nurses whose first language will not be Greek.
The council then signed a memorandum of understanding with the College of Cyprus’ Greek language faculty to find out the minimal protected degree.
With this in thoughts, they mentioned they might convene a gathering on Friday to debate the alleged plans, with representatives from the federation of sufferers’ associations (Osak) additionally set to be current.
The controversy arose over plans introduced final week by Well being Minister Michael Damianos to fill gaps in Cyprus’ nursing workforce with nurses from third international locations.
Nurses’ union Pasyno chairman Christos Christodoulou final week insisted that the present regulation “should be utilized with out exceptions” because it pertains to Greek language necessities.
“We at all times demand strict adherence to the regulation concerning the {qualifications} and standards for registering a nurse within the skilled registry. Certainly one of these standards is an efficient data of the Greek language,” he mentioned.
“If a nurse, whether or not from the European Union or a 3rd nation, meets this requirement and their schooling ensures the standard of companies we demand, they will present companies to Cypriot sufferers.”
The plans to import nurses from overseas had been unveiled after the employers’ and industrialists’ federation (Oev) had warned that some clinics may very well be pressured to droop their operations if Cyprus’ nursing scarcity “will not be resolved instantly” on the finish of final month.
That they had mentioned Cyprus’ nursing wants have “confirmed to be unable to me guess both by the native or by the European labour market” and cited related nursing shortages confronted by international locations throughout the European Union.
For that reason, they mentioned, the “solely approach out” is for nurses to be employed from third international locations, and for third nation nationals who research nursing in Cyprus to be “utilised” within the home market.
Varied sources have mentioned Cyprus is round 500 nurses wanting the minimal required to cowl all of the gaps within the nation’s well being service, with this quantity set to extend as nurses retire.
Fears of workers shortages additionally took place weeks after Pasydy’s nursing department had mentioned nurses are “typically handled with contempt” in Cyprus.
Earlier, nurses’ union Pasyno and the European Federation of Nurses’ Associations had penned a joint letter to Michael Damianos expressing concern concerning coaching of nurses in Cyprus in relation to the European Union’s mutual recognition of requirements {and professional} {qualifications}.
Their issues relate to the deliberate discount of the variety of hours in Cyprus required to coach a nurse to three,800. Such a discount wouldn’t adjust to the EU minimal of 4,600 hours, which nurses say may endanger affected person security and can infringe upon their human rights.
Within the letter, they mentioned Cypriot nurses’ EU freedom of motion “will probably be jeopardised if we discard the directive”, as their {qualifications} would now not be recognised as having met the minimal European requirements.
As well as, they mentioned, analysis carried out over the past three many years “exhibits {that a} 10 per cent discount in nurses’ schooling will increase affected person mortality by seven per cent”.
