A private doctor on Wednesday slammed the health ministry and health professionals over the visitation ban at hospitals as he posted messages from a hospitalised patient who was begging for help before he died.
In post to social media on Tuesday, Gerontologist Marios Kyriazis posted two photos of a message thread with a patient, hospitalised at Larnaca general.
“After much reflection, today I am posting some of the messages sent to me by a patient in our hospital who was not allowed visits. I, as a private doctor, was almost sneaking in and sitting with him. The messages were sent to me when I was leaving,” the doctor wrote.
In their communication, the patient was asking him to “come”, saying “its getting dark. I am scared” and that “water ran out”.
“I want to kill myself” the patient wrote in Greek and requested “help, please”.
Hundreds of people responded to the post, which was shared over 250 times.
“Eventually he died alone,” the doctor said.
He added he will never forgive the people responsible for allowing people to die alone.
“Those of you who were responsible for these patient visitation bans, I will never forgive you. You have no value as health care professionals,” Kyriazis wrote.
Visits to hospitalised patients were significantly restricted and at periods completely banned as part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus measures.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, the doctor said he used the specific incident as an example, but such cases “happen all the time”.
He said the health ministry and relevant officials who issue the decrees are responsible, but also the hospital managers who insist on abiding by the regulations without considering the humane aspect of the situation.
According to the private doctor, “there is no excuse” for not allowing visits since health professionals and other hospital staff such as cleaners also come in contact with the patients.
“It would be possible to allow visitations with protective gear, vaccine or test,” he said.
Kyriazis also believes that regulations as regards nursing home visits are unnecessarily strict.
The gerontologist’s post comes after a similar complaint from the family of a cancer patient who also claimed they faced difficulties in seeing their relative who was treated at the Nicosia general hospital and had reported the behaviour of some health professionals.
The case was brought to light over the weekend by Simerini, which said the family filed an official complaint with state health services organisation Okypy on March 17.
They reported that for weeks, they were not allowed to see the patient and were told they would be notified in case of death. The family had to eventually pull strings to be permitted brief ten-minute visits.
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