Corfu Ambulance Service complaining again about understaffing

The problem of understaffing was made obvious for the umpteenth time on Saturday with the road accident in Lefkimmi. As a result of the South Corfu ambulance service not being able to operate fully, there was a delay of an hour before an ambulance could arrive at the scene. The injured motorcyclist was taken to Corfu Hospital and on Sunday he was transferred to Ioannina Hospital.

The serious problem was highlighted yet again - the ambulance service does not have enough staff. "There have been various promises over time, but we haven't seen any results," the President of Corfu Ambulance Service Employees Union Christos Kypriotis told Enimerosi.

"We have pressed all the administrative, political and professional bodies," he said, "Nonetheless, so much time has passed since the tragic death of Stratos Tagatidis and yet we are still in the same situation.

"The lack of personnel means that the ambulance service in the south cannot operate on a daily basis and the unit in North Corfu has not even been set up. It is unacceptable that an ambulance takes at least 50 minutes to get from the centre to the end of the island. No one should lose his life whilst waiting for an ambulance.

"For the Ambulance Service (EKAB) to properly serve an island with a population of 110,000 plus millions of tourists with the roads in the condition they are in, we need at least another 15 staff," he added. " Unfortunately, the advertisement for the positions by ASEP that we were expecting has not happened and we don't know when it will happen."