The Turkish Cypriot Doctors Trade Union (Tıp-İş) carried out a 3-hour warning strike today between 9 am and 12 pm at all public hospitals and health centres across the country to draw attention to the lack of medicines and other health care problems.
The emergency services, urgent surgeries, oncology, hemodialysis, thalassemia centre, and inpatient and intensive care unit continued working uninterruptedly, it has been reported.
Head of TIP-İŞ Dr Şükrü Onbaşı issued a statement to the press in front of the Dr Burhan Nalbantoğlu hospital in the presence of other physicians.
Onbaşı drew attention to the lack of budget and medicine in the health sector.
Speaking to the press, Onbaşı stated that the budget allocated to the health sector is low adding that the economic crisis has made the budget even more ineffective. He also said that the personnel insufficiency and the physical infrastructure deficiencies in the public sector could not be met due to the bureaucratic unwieldy structure.
Noting that drugs used in the treatment of oncology and other chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and MS could not be obtained regularly, Onbaşı argued that they are facing problems like finding vital medicines such as blood thinners that neurologists use for cerebrovascular blockages, stents that cardiologists use to open heart vessels, and temporary pacemakers to support rhythm disorders.
Pointing to the lack of physical infrastructure at hospitals Dr Şükrü Onbaşı said “We have bed shortages at intensive care units!”
Emphasizing that thoracic surgery, plastic surgery and other services that should be included in the health system could not be opened due to problems, Şükrü Onbaşı stated that the capacities of intensive care units could not be increased due to the lack of physical space, physicians and nurses.
Onbaşı said, “We are not only facing bed problems at intensive care units in the public sector but also in the private health sector too!”
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