Hospital upgrades
NEW equipment and a growing staff are part of an expanding Girne State Hospital, which has seen “many improvements” within the past six months.
Chief Physician Dr Ceyhun Birinci announced that more staff have been hired, while the hospital has received a donation to pay for six pieces of equipment from the Friends of the TRNC Emergency Services (112). After raising 10,000TL from quizzes and other activities over the past 10 months, the 112 charity donated the funds for a range of equipment. Charity heads Brenda and Mike Plant presented the cheque to the Akçiçek hospital team on Monday.
“We were very pleased to be able to donate this to the hospital and are very grateful to all the people who support our events that make it possible to continue to do so,” said Mrs Plant, whose charity has now raised some £130,000 over the last 10 years.
Dr Birinci said: “I would like to express heartfelt thanks and appreciation from all of us to this wonderful couple who have made all the doctors and patients at Akçiçek very happy today.”
“It is heartening not just to get this vital equipment but to know that the community is behind us,” he said.
The funded equipment comprises two metal surgical tables, a pulse oximeter to measure heart rate and oxygen levels, paediatric blood pressure machine, a nebuliser for steam-treating lung problems, and an otoscope for checking ears.
Dr Birinci, who was first employed as a doctor at the hospital 1995, also announced other improvements with the support of the Health Ministry, including more staff.
“Six months ago shifts at the accident and emergency unit were not running properly. There was a lack of doctors and personnel in many departments. After taking [up my] position, we identified the deficiencies in personnel and infrastructure,” he said.
Currently there are 170 personnel at the 80-bed capacity hospital, 38 of them doctors, who include a newly employed chest diseases expert, a full-time cardiologist and a skin specialist, while a paediatrician and child psychiatrist are about to start work.
“Yes, currently we are in need of doctors and nurses in certain branches,” he said.
“Urgent requirements” include support staff and nurses for the dialysis ward, and Dr Birinci added they “know the ministry is working hard on this issue”.
Other improvements include two new disabled parking spaces, repainted wards, repairs to the operating theatre and optical equipment for orthopaedic surgery, while future projects envisage an extra building and a new operating theatre, as well as a multi-storey car park to be shared with Girne Municipality.
UNION and English flags flew as more than 100 people watched the BBC Last Night of the Proms concert during the annual Proms in the Park event organised by the Royal British Legion (RBL) Kyrenia branch.
A British tradition usually full of patriotic fervour, the Promenade concerts date back to the 1890s and are now dubbed “classical music’s biggest party”.
TRNC expats gathered at Lapta’s Wild Duck Café where they were provided with a special Proms menu on Wednesday night while watching a recording of September 8’s Royal Albert Hall concert on two big screens.
Branch secretary and organiser Pamela Padden said the event saw people come dressed in “true Proms-style”, while helping to raise more than 3,000TL for RBL funds.