A patient was left naked and uncovered on her bed at the Limassol general hospital last week, a geriatrician reported on Monday.
But state health services organisation (Okypy) is saying “it is not how it looks” as an investigation was launched into the incident.
The photo of the woman caused a social media uproar with over a hundred comments and shares in just a few hours after it was posted by Dr Marios Kyriazis on Facebook.
“We should all be ashamed,” the doctor said, referring to “the Shame of the State”.
He then called on the new president, Nikos Christodoulides to prioritise vulnerable patients.
“I dont care if someone is punished, but I dont accept that the patient is punished,” Kyriazis said, explaining that he does not know who is at fault in this case.
If you zoom in the photo, he said, you will see that this patient is holding the bed rail tightly with her right hand, to the point where her fingers are white from the grip. “This shows how desperate a state she was in, and how much she was suffering.”
Commentators denounced the incident with some saying they had “personal experience” with similar issues.
“I have direct experience of such an incident and unfortunately, I could not do anything about it. Im glad this photo came out on the internet because it brings to the surface the issue that is plaguing and literally killing a lot of people.
“Its a shame, a shame, and unfair!” a psychotherapist wrote.
However, Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantela said this was an isolated incident and has requested for it to be investigated as soon as he was informed. “If some people have to be suspended they will be. We have done so in the past in cases where it was deemed appropriate,” he said.
The minister added that over the weekend there are serious incidents which hospitals handle with difficulty.
Confirming that the icindent will be investigated, the spokesman of state health services organisation (Okypy) Charalambos Charilaou said that from the first briefing they have “it seems that things are not as they are presented.”
As Okypy, we reserve all our legal rights. Its a photograph, at the end of the day it violates the rights of a patient, we will follow what the law says, he explained.
Some people have tried to nullify the whole work of nurses, Charilaou added.
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