Redux
Every journey circles home
Every time news emerges about deaths, abuse or neglect inside our state hospitals, the public discussion follows the same path. It begins with what happened to the victim, who is usually someone without the means to seek better care elsewhere, a foreigner, an elderly person, someone poor, in other words someone treated as if they matter less. And it ends with the healthcare professional, more specifically the nurse. Doctors also struggle within the health system, but they are at least better paid, receive greater recognition and, when things go wrong, they tend to be more protected.
We rarely turn our attention to the lack of a functioning welfare state or to the health system itself. As relatives or journalists, we naturally approach those in authority to demand answers and accountability, yet the immediate response we then report almost always ends with the familiar phrase, “an investigation has been launched”.
It is a phrase that implies there is a culprit, a specific individual. We begin searching for the “human errors”: who spoke harshly, who restrained the elderly man in his bed, who left the patient waiting in Accident and Emergency. And indeed, anyone alleged to have treated a vulnerable person with brutality deserves condemnation.
Anyone who has spent time in a public hospital can confirm the truth of this without needing any report to convince them that conditions are often inhumane. Patients are admitted and discharged hastily, the care falls below expectations, the food is appalling and the hospital experience is far from what it should be. However much we must acknowledge the importance of the existence of GeSY, the reality in Accident and Emergency departments and in the wards remains problematic.
This is not a problem unique to Cyprus, as populations are ageing everywhere and demand for care is rising. Even the United States, Britain, and Switzerland -countries we would readily trust for serious treatment- face immense pressure on their health systems. Fewer people are choosing to become nurses, while the number of patients per nurse continues to climb.
Experienced staff leave early due to the heavy workload, and younger nurses are expected to accept meagre wages. Who would willingly take on a profession with low pay, exhausting hours, shifts on public holidays, and enormous responsibility for patient care? Investments are directed towards buildings and medical equipment, leaving critical gaps in staffing and organisational support.
Therefore, the question of who is to blame in any given incident will always have an answer, but it will not be the right one, because patients and medical staff continue trying to survive within a system that produces dreadful conditions, alongside hospital-acquired infections. And behind the person blamed will always be those who consciously decide to keep Health low on the state’s list of priorities.