Unpaid doctors refuse to work on-call

DOCTORS at Limassol hospital’s emergency room have lashed out against not having been paid for on-call services since May 2012 by refusing to work on stand-by.
This has resulted in understaffing, which in turn has forced some patients to turn to private practices for medical care.
Around 20 people have sent letters to Limassol hospital demanding reimbursement of the money they spent on private care. In the letters they blame the state for not being able to provide them with the proper care.
But the doctors say it is not their fault. “This is a tragic situation. We have not been paid since May, 2012. We are supposed to have four people on stand-by but we only have two most of the time. No one cares.  The people from behind the desks make the decisions. It is easy for them to cast judgement when they do not see what happens in the emergency room on a day-to-day basis. We are not in a working environment where we can just sign papers, we work with sick people who need hours of attention,” the emergency room staff said in a statement.
In any given day, they said they see around 20 patients an hour. “We cannot keep up with this work load and many lives are at risk. There have been situations where a patient had a heart attack while waiting,” they said.
The emergency room staff said they had not been paid for the extra time they’ve put in. “Money can be cut and saved from many departments but not the emergency room. This is where it is a matter of life or death,” they added.
The staff are waiting for approval from the ministry of finance to pay the doctors who are on the A13 pay scale or above. “All doctors below this scale have already been paid,” said an employee in the accounting department of Limassol hospital.
Out of the 14 doctors who work at the Limassol emergency services department, six are on the A13 pay scale and above.
Doctors who are on a high pay scale are avoiding being a part of the on-call rotation and some are outright refusing to work on standby, as they know that they will not get paid. This leaves others to cover their on-call shifts, resulting in understaffing.
At the end of November last year some doctors went on strike, protesting their lack of pay.