Medical services at government hospitals are not at par with private hospitals not just because of the poor infrastructure, but because of a shortage of staff, particularly acute shortage of permanent staff nurses who form the backbone of any hospital.
Not even half of the sanctioned posts of nurses in state hospitals (in all the four categories) are filled. Says Kamala Hugar, president, Karnataka Government Nurses Association and a senior staff nurse currently working as senior staff nurse at Vani Vilas Hospital, "Of the 11,500 numbers of sanctioned posts of staff nurses across government hospitals in the State, only 7,400 of them are working; the rest 4,100 posts are lying vacant. If we are to go by the Indian Nursing Council (INC) norms 20,000 staff nurses are required."
Even in the other three categories of nurses, the sanctioned posts have not been filled up. Of the 600 sanctioned posts for senior nurses, only 400 are working, and 200 are lying vacant and 2,000 more senior nurses are required as per the INC norms. For the Grade 2 nurses, of the 470 sanctioned posts, only 300 are filled and 1,000 more Grade 2 nurses are needed. In the Grade 1 category too, only 30 posts are filled of the 69 sanctioned. “Even after they fill up all the 69 posts, more 300 Grade 1 staff nurses are required as every other year there has been an additional number of primary health centres in various districts across the State,” she added
When asked about the reason for the shortage, Sister Hugar said: "Several times we have put forward a memorandum to the Government, but every time they provide the same explanation- that they are calling candidates for recruitment. This has been going on for a very long time, more so with hospitals like us which are under the Medical Education Department.”
The State is now recruiting staff nurses on contract basis for six months, which it is alleged leads to deteriorating quality of staff nurses. “After they serve for six months in one hospital they are transferred to another hospital. In the process, the nurses fail to take up their responsibility in a dedicated manner. This way the quality of work at our hospitals suffers,” said another senior staff nurse.
Dr T.S. Cheluvaraju, director, State Health and Family Welfare insists that “We are on with the recruitment of staff nurses on a regular basis.” But he admits that “in order to fill up the vacant posts we are also recruiting nurses on contractual basis.” He also made the peculiar claim that “here and there the nurses are retiring and due to death of nurses the numbers are decreasing. Otherwise we have sufficient staff-nurses.”