HYDERABAD: The gruesome incident at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) hospital, where a staff nurse attempted suicide in front of the Medical Superintendent’s office, has shed light on the hapless condition of nurses across all government hospitals in the State.
With meagre wages being paid to contract nurses, no scope of promotions for years and a lack of recruitment by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) in four years, a 50 per cent shortage of nurses has been reported in most hospitals, leading to increased workload and unstable work hours.
NIMS currently has around 700 nurses to attend to more than 1200 in-patients and 2000 out-patients. The hospital has a total of 338 permanent staff nurses, 330 contract nurses, 17 in-charge nurses and 40 head nurses. According to the Nursing Superintendent, “There is a requirement of head nurses, but that has to take lace through the promotion of in-charge nurses.”
However, Medical Superintendent Dr N Satyanarayana maintained that, “We had given promotions to 10 staff nurses just a week back, and recruited 30 staff nurses about a month ago. When notifications were sent out, we had shortlisted and sent appointment orders to 50 nurses. However, 20 did not report to work.”
Vijaya Kumari, general secretary of the NIMS Nursing Union, said, “We are incredibly overworked. Even in the ICCU, the nurse to patient ratio is 1:3. In the general wards, the ratio is close to 1:10. We do not even have proper basic facilities such as washrooms and changing rooms.”
While NIMS is a semi-autonomous hospital, the situation is even more grim in government hospitals like Niloufer. According to a well-placed source who chose to remain anonymous, “The hospital requires more than 300 nurses. We currently have only around 130 nurses. The last time a recruitment was done by the TSPSC was in 2015. A notification was sent out in 2017, but no recruitments were done.”
She further said, “In Niloufer, one nurse takes care of 15 patients in the ICU and close to 50 patients in the general ward. Every nurse in the hospital has developed some form of stress related ailment, be it hyper-tension or diabetes. Contract nurses who were supposed to get a hike from August -from Rs 17,000 to Rs 25,000 per month - have been still receiving Rs 17,000.”
A source from a chain of top corporate hospital told Express, “The pay range varies according to the position...but it is usually between Rs 20,000 to a lakh. The nurse-patient ratio in the ICUs are 1:1, and in general wards it is 1:2, 1:5 or 1:10, depending on the ward or room structure.”
Do nurses prefer private hospitals over government ones?
While superintendents of government hospitals claim that nurses often leave for better opportunities in private hospitals, many nurses have refuted the allegation.
It is not surprising that nurses would prefer government positions in comparison to private hospitals as the pay structure and shift timings are fairly similar. But the key difference between private and government hospitals are that the private hospitals stick to their nurse-to-patient ratio.