More than 100 senior NHS staff have been ‘abandoned’ at a deserted makeshift hospital in Cyprus despite being desperate to return to solve Britain’s health backlog.
The medical cadre at the RAF Akrotiri military base includes consultants, surgeons, specialists, A&E doctors and nurses who have been left with nothing to do for weeks.
They were seconded to the base in the wake of the planned evacuation of Britons stranded in nearby Lebanon as hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah fighters intensified.
Many of the medical staff, called on to assist the military in crisis situations, have been forced to cancel work scheduled in the UK to remain on standby in Cyprus.
The medical cadre at the RAF Akrotiri military base (pictured) includes consultants, surgeons, specialists, A&E doctors and nurses
The medics in Cyprus said they understood the authorities were playing it safe to protect the lives of UK citizens living abroad. (Pictured, stock photo of a beach in Cyrpus)
But they have yet to treat a single patient at Akrotiri.
And they are likely to remain on the island for at least the next two weeks amid confusion over whether the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, or another department has the authority to sanction their return to the UK while the new Government is in recess.
A source in Akrotiri said last night: ‘We’re all stuck out here while the NHS back home is on its knees. We need to get back to our jobs but no one seems to have the authority to order it.’
An estimated 7.62 million treatments were waiting to be carried out by the NHS at the end of June in England.
The medics in Cyprus said they understood the authorities were playing it safe to protect the lives of UK citizens living abroad, but the most likely emergencies would be heat exhaustion.
The Ministry of Defence said: ‘While our focus is on de-escalation, tensions in the region remain high. We actively manage and review our force posture to ensure that we can adequately respond at short notice to a range of scenarios.’
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