Nicosia, Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot doctors went on a full-day strike on Friday, citing shortcomings by the north’s ruling coalition and saying health services are currently unable to meet demand.
Strike action and protest outside hospital
Members of doctors’ trade unions gathered outside northern Nicosia’s Dr Burhan Nalbantoglu hospital on Friday afternoon, where Cyprus Turkish doctors’ trade union (Tip-Is) leader Ozlem Gurkut delivered a speech.
Claims about budget and rising patient demand
Gurkut said the ‘health ministry’s’ budget is being diverted to referring patients to the private sector instead of investing in public health.
She said the inability to make preventative health services effective, along with bad demographic policies and deep poverty, has increased patient admissions and created a situation where health services are unable to meet demand.
Staffing shortages and temporary contracts
Gurkut said more than half of doctors in the north’s public sector are working on temporary contracts and that many clinics across the north have no specialist doctors.
She said some doctors are the only ones working in their units and are on call every day of the year, adding that a practice meant to be the exception has become the system.
Working hours, on-call conditions, and payments
Gurkut said doctors are working an average of 60 hours per week, that payment for on-call shifts is often delayed, and that during those shifts doctors are forced to work continuously for 30 hours after their on-call shifts until the end of the next day’s workday.
She said the system is sustained by employees’ sacrifices and maintained by doctors working under high medical and legal risks, with heavy emotional burdens, irregular working hours, and long night shifts.
Allegations involving resident doctors
Gurkut said resident doctors are being subjected to forced labour, adding that doctors are forced to work in a different village every day and are exiled from their assigned positions.
How do you think the public health system should address staffing shortages and on-call working conditions?