Yesterday’s marathon session of Parliament highlighted the need for immediate decisions, specific timelines, and a comprehensive mental health system that emphasizes prevention, early intervention, community-based care, and patient rehabilitation—was highlighted during yesterday’s marathon session of the Parliamentary Health Committee, during which long-standing problems in the sector were discussed, with particular reference to Athalassa Hospital.
Statements were also made to the Committee by the President of the “ISOTITA” Police Union, Nikos Loizidis, who, referring to the gaps and shortcomings in the process of enforcing compulsory hospitalization orders for mentally ill patients, caused a stir by highlighting the reality faced by patients and police officers in the year 2026.
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The President of the “ISOTITAS” Police Union appeared today on the “Alpha Kalimera” show and spoke on the issue, noting that “police officers enforce the law, but this procedure cannot be carried out by police officers.” Police officers, he explained, “are there to ensure the safe execution of the court order”; therefore, “there should be a medical professional or nurse” with them throughout the entire procedure.
Mr. Loizidis also referred to cases where the process takes a long time to complete, such as when the judge may order that the person be transferred to a safe place until the following day. “There’s no such thing as a ‘safe place’—we take them to the police station. Are you going to tie them to a chair? Are you going to lock them in a cell? We try to talk to them. We end up playing the role of psychologists,” he said.
“There was a case where a person who was taken to the station grabbed a colleague by the throat while he was talking on the phone; we calmed him down, sat him down, and were forced tohandcuffs,”
When there is no doctor at Athalassa Hospital after 2:30 a.m. and one must be called in (on call)—and the doctor may be coming from Limassol— Larnaca, Mr. Loizidis said, “we park outside Athalassa Hospital with the patient in the police van. The patient realizes they’re being taken to a psychiatric hospital and starts to resist. They bang on the doors and the windows of the transport van, injuring themselves, and by the time the doctor arrives, we’re forced to administer first aid again for the injuries they sustained inside the van. The situations are tragic.”
“Due to the high number of incidents, we’ve been forced to work overtime. It’s unacceptable for these people to be put in the transport vans. There was an incident where it took four police officers to transport a mentally ill patient because he was so uncooperative.”
Furthermore, he said, there are many instances where police officers also perform guard duties inside the psychiatric hospital for detainees with mental health issues.
“I haven’t seen anyone express concern about this procedure, which has been going on for years. At some point, a tragedy will occur. These are people with mental health issues; you never know how a situation might turn out,” he warned.
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