The ambulance service responded to 422 emergency calls, 172 of which concerned the Nicosia district, between December 24-26, Riana Constantinou, head of the service at the Ministry of Health, told CNA on Saturday.
The incidents concerned chest pain, injuries, illnesses, she said, adding that the ambulance service prompltly responded to all of them.
Asked about the number of incidents, Constantinou said that there are always increased calls during the holidays, but this year the Nicosia district recorded an increase. However, in general, she noted, they were at the usual holiday levels. Fortunately, she said, there have not been so far any fatal traffic accidents between Christman Eve and Boxing Day.
Accidents and Emergency Departments are on standby and public hospitals have available beds to deal with urgent cases, the State Health Services Organisation’s (OKYPY) spokesperson, Charalambos Harilaou, told CNA, noting that there was increased traffic in hospitals during the Christmas holiday season since both general practitioners and specialist doctors are on leave.
He said that the Organisation has been running fast-track clinics for some time, where non-urgent cases are being treated which helps decongest the hospitals.
According to Harilaou, there has been an increase in incidents, but nothing unusual, rather incidents that occur frequently such as strokes, heart attacks, some traffic accidents, and increased cases of influenza, but not at alarming levels like in the rest of Europe.