VISAKHAPATNAM: The staff crunch at King George Hospital (KGH) is giving a tough time for the existing staff to manage hundreds of patients daily.
For 31 departments and 1,500 in-patients, the patient-nurse ratio is 30:2 in the wards. Instead of taking measures to recruit staff nurses, it is being managed by taking staff on deputation from other government hospitals.
Staff crunch at the KGH is a long-pending issue.
Two years back, the KGH was sanctioned 200 staff nurses on a contract basis but the patient-nurse ratio never reached the standard norm in any ward.
As per the norms, the KGH requires around 1,100 nursing staff but it has only 234 staff nurses who work in three shifts.
For an ICU, it is 5:1 ratio against the norm of 2:1, while in general wards it is 30:2 as against 10:1.
A week go, around 54 staff nurses were deputed to Srikakulam Government Hospital and simultaneously the KGH was deputed 12 staff nurses from the CHCs.
The current nursing staff have to treat hundreds of patients in the departments, especially in the Gynaecology and Paediatric wards.
At least another 500 staff nurses are required to provide complete care and attention to the patients. “During general transfers, not more than 20 per cent of the existing staff should be shifted but sometimes we see transfer of nurses who are experienced in tertiary care service,” G Arjuna, KGH superintendent, told TNIE.
Also, another major issue during the time of general transfers is superintendent should be a member of the transfers committee so that he can rectify such issues at the start.
“But once the staff are either transferred or sent on deputation, it is found that the staff nurses are not willing to come back to the KGH if required, because of work pressure,” said Arjuna.
“Government should recruit staff rather than deputing staff. While health is the main agenda of the government, why are they not recruiting sufficient nursing staff. There are many of us who work without leave which has become a common thing,” said a KGH nurse.
Further, the 1,040-bed KGH has patients than its capacity. The hospital officials say they need more beds. With the current space, they are unable to accommodate more beds. Materinty and Child Care wards have beds in the corridors too.
“We requested for 100-bed Maternal and Child Health Block (MCH) with an estimated budget of Rs 65 crore,” said Arjuna.