Procedures have been set in motion to carry out €10 million worth of projects at the Limassol Hospital, to provide upgraded services in the new competitive era of the General Healthcare System (GHS), since many specialties have been added to it and space needs are huge. Christos Nikolaou, Director of the Limassol and Paphos hospitals, told us that during the pandemic, the need to create a modern intensive care unit, with 20 to 30 beds, proved to be too much, since Limassol also covers Paphos and partially Larnaca.
"There is an urgent need to upgrade the hemodialysis (unit) to which six more beds were added in 2020, 286 patients are served and the introduction of a 4th shift is being discussed," according to Mr. Nikolaou. The upgrade of the First Aid is also being promoted, to which an infectious diseases unit will be added. These three projects, which are also co-financed by the EU, have already been designed by an architectural firm and as Mr. Nikolaou estimated, during 2023 and 2024 the hospital will very much resemble a construction site.
The hemodialysis spaces that will be freed will be used to create a Day Care unit, with a suitable environment. As Mr. Nikolaou pointed out, day care is currently provided at ward level and there is now competition that can offer much more. On the agenda the Limassol Hospital management is also the construction of a new building in an external area, which will be used to move administrative services out of the hospital (the auditorium and the library located on the first floor), so that a surgery room can also operate there, to expand the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and move interventional services from the ground floor.
Thoughts and suggestions for the future include the conversion of the ground floor into a rehabilitation centre, or exchange space with the psychiatric clinic, in order to create the centre, which as Christos Nikolaou pointed out, represents one of the most pressing needs that exist today not just in Limassol, but throughout Cyprus. The creation of the rehabilitation centre, beds occupied by patients who are in this transitional stage, will be freed up.
