Neonatal unit upgrade stalled amid legal dispute

Lawmakers on Thursday again decried the abject lack of progress in the scheduled expansion and upgrade of the neonatal intensive care unit at Makarios hospital, with the project apparently bogged down due to a dispute between the contractor and the state health services organisation.

The state health services organisation (Okypy) had awarded the expansion contract to a company, but differences have since arisen between the two parties and the matter has ended up in court.

In January of this year Okypy had announced the works would have been finished within six months.

But nothing has happened.

“Six months later, we are saddened to hear that construction has yet to begin,” said Savia Orfanidou, a Disy MP on the House health committee.

In a similar vein, Akel’s Nikos Kettiros recalled how the discussion over expanding the neonatal unit began some four years ago.

“Four years. And it was a year ago, in July 2024, that President Nikos Christodoulides laid the foundation stone.

“And since then, do you know what happened? A fence was placed, and a couple of holes drilled in the ground. That’s it.”

The Akel deputy slammed the government, calling them capable only “of peddling promises and hot air”.

On Thursday MPs got new promises that the matter would be resolved by end of the month.

“I very much doubt it,” commented Kettiros. “But I hope I’m wrong.”

Okypy informed parliamentarians that by the end of June it will take a final decision. Either it will keep pressuring the contractor, or else cancel the contract.

The upgrades would have added 26 incubators, four isolation units, plus 24 intermediate care units.

The contract was worth about €6.5 million.

According to Diko MP Chrysanthos Savvides, the neonatal unit currently operates at 150 per cent of capacity.

“You realise that this puts at risk the lives of newborns, babies that is, who should be born at 36 or 38 weeks but instead are being delivered at 26, 28 or 30 weeks.”

“Once again, a project signed by the previous administration has collapsed, just as have done the Paphos-Polis road, the LNG terminal at Vasiliko, the port and harbour at Larnaca.”