TENKASI: Doctors at the District Government Headquarters Hospital (GHQH) in Tenkasi have urged the State government to create more posts of doctors, nurses and multipurpose workers in the hospital. "Even after the hospital's bed count increased from 237 to the present count of 557 over the years, and the number of in-patients (IP) and outpatients (OP) tripled, the staff strength has not been raised. We are forced to function with one-third of the required number of staff recommended by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare," the doctors said.
As many as 3,23,123 OP and 30,319 IP received treatment from the GHQH in 2021. The doctors performed 3,512 deliveries, including 2,648 caesareans, last year and it also receives referral cases from across the district.
"The hospital has a sanctioned staff strength of 40 doctors, 64 nurses, and 64 multipurpose workers. However, this number of posts has not yet been raised even after the bed count got significantly increased over the years. Only 20 doctors are available for OP duty during the daytime, after a portion of the staff is deputed to medical camps like 'Varumun Kappom', and court duty," they added.
Making matters worse, 60 of the 64 multipurpose workers have already retired and one person is taking treatment for cancer. "None of these vacancies has been filled. With regard to the nurse count, we are managing with the nurses, who were temporarily posted to the GHQH to handle the pandemic situation. The situation is dire. Even the recently-established headquarters hospitals in the State with limited bed count were provided with 80 doctor posts," the doctors said.
To handle a large number of patients in Tenkasi district, which is among the six districts that lack a government medical college hospital in the State, the GHQH requires at least 120 doctors and over 250 nurses, said one of the hospital administrators. While the Government Hospital in Sankarankovil has seven lab technician posts, the Tenkasi GHQH, which receives hundreds of referral cases from the Sankarankovil GH, has only five technicians.
"We also have no staff to handle snakebite cases. Though the GHQH recently bagged the National Quality Assurance Standards certification and is in a position to enhance its treatment quality further, the manpower shortage poses a major roadblock," the administrator added.
When contacted by TNIE, Director of Medical and Rural Health Services Dr Hari Sundari promised to bring the doctors' concerns to the notice of the State government and take steps to resolve the manpower shortage issue.