Speaking to parliament on 25 June, Health Minister Neofytos Charalambides revealed that Cyprus’ public hospitals are short of roughly 600 nurses—10 % of the total establishment. To prevent service disruption he floated a temporary scheme allowing hospitals to employ non-EU nurses for up to two years, capped at 10 % of each facility’s headcount and subject to Greek-language proficiency and restricted supervisory duties. The minister stressed that local and EU candidates would retain priority but said foreign recruitment is the only realistic short-term lever while domestic training pipelines scale up. The government has also asked the National Guard to grant draft deferments to students enrolled in nursing programmes, and it commissioned a workforce-planning study to avert recurrent shortages. For employers the proposal signals a potential new specialised work-permit channel comparable to the 2023 fast-track ICT scheme. Agencies placing healthcare staff should prepare credential-recognition files (degree equivalence, professional licences, language tests) so they can move quickly if the cabinet approves the measure later this summer. Private clinics are lobbying for the scheme to be extended to them, arguing that competition for talent is island-wide.
Source: Cyprus Mail
