Bill to grant legal status to paramedics by end of May

A bill which will make paramedics a legally protected profession will be submitted to a parliamentary plenary session for a vote by the end of May, the House health committee decided on Thursday.

Committee deputy chairwoman and Disy MP Savia Orphanidou explained after the committee that her party considers the matter to be a “particularly serious issue”.

She added that the bill will establish a paramedics’ registry, which she said is “needed for these people to be able to function properly”.

“We believe that their daily work, this work which saves lives, needs and requires that there be a salary upgrade at the same time,” she said, adding that once the profession receives legal protection, her party’s next steps will be to “exert pressure on the relevant ministry” to this end.

This, she said, will be done so that the health ministry “sees positively the efforts that we have been making for a very long time so that these people can live with dignity”.

Meanwhile, Akel MP Marina Nikolaou also praised paramedics, saying they are “literally on the front lines at every moment and for every need each and every one of us may have”.

Cyprus ambulance crew paramedics association chairman Michalis Arestis expressed his satisfaction with the progress made, and said the move to legally protect the profession will also help in efforts to win a pay rise.

“We are on the lower scale of the public sector. Everyone knows what we offer and we offer it not for the salary, but for the love we have, but we also have families at home who are waiting for us,” he said.

Health Minister Michael Damianos had earlier said the planned creation of a paramedics’ registry and legal protection for the profession would “secure” it, dding that it has been “particularly requested” by paramedics themselves.