NEW DELHI: Though Delhi government has increased the number of beds in hospitals and opened new facilities to improve the healthcare infrastructure, no new posts have been created for the nursing cadre. The hospitals are running with only 30% of their total required nursing staff. This shortage is adversely affecting services and patient care, besides putting extra workload on the current staff. TimesviewShortage of nursing staff adversely affects the entire health system, especially the patients. It also puts added pressure on the nurses working currently. The government must attend to the matter on a priority basisMembers of Delhi Nurses Federation (DNF) said there was an acute shortage of nurses in the main government hospitals, including Lok Nayak, GB Pant, Guru Teg Bahadur, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Bhagwan Mahavir. The existing staff is handling the increasing workload of patients planned more than 10 years ago. According to the staff inspection unit (SIU) norms, there is a shortage of 6,168 nursing officers (59.8%), 1,265 (73.6%) senior nursing officers, 234 (81.8%) assistant nursing superintendent and 33 (70.7%) deputy nursing superintendents in 10 major hospitals run by Delhi government. Four sanctioned posts of nursing superintendent are vacant against the requirement of 13. Liladhar Ramchandani, secretary general of DNF, told TOI, “No new post has been created for the last 10 years. The government is increasing the number of beds in existing hospitals and opening new ones and transferring existing staff there. The current nursing staff strength is not enough to handle the increased workload of patients.” “For smooth functioning of hospitals and better patient care, SIU norms should be implemented for creating new posts. We submitted a memorandum to the health secretary and the health minister in this regard, but no action was taken by them,” added Ramchandani. Delhi government secretary (health and family welfare) Amit Singla didn’t respond to TOI’s calls or messages for comments on the matter. While presenting the budget in March this year, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said from 10,055 hospital beds in 2019-20, the government had increased them to 13,844 by December 2021 to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The nursing association alleged that the government had opened three hospitals during the pandemic — Burari, Indira Gandhi and Dr Baba Sahib Ambedkar — but staff members from other hospitals were being transferred there to manage patients. In 2007, a senior health official had written to the office of administrative reforms that there was a need for additional manpower in terms of doctors, nurses and paramedics for the major hospitals. The lack of manpower was affecting the quality of services and creating stress among staff. Subsequently, a circular was issued by the then deputy secretary HR Sharma mentioning that the medical superintendents of some hospitals were expanding wards, ICU, blood bank and purchasing equipment without the corresponding increase in the number of posts for such activities. The hospitals’ administration was directed to ensure that new services were not started without adequate manpower.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/shortage-of-nursing-staff-hits-hosps-hard/articleshow/94997336.cms
