Wednesday, Nov 03, 2004
Wednesday, Nov 03, 2004 |
| Kerala | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Science & Tech |
Entertainment |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Kerala
-
Thiruvananthapuram
By Our Staff Reporter
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV. 2. Lack of adequate nursing staff and an overload of in-patients have severely affected the quality of patient-care and ward service at the Medical College Hospital (MCH) here. The MCH has 1,588 beds. But on any given day, there will be at least 100 extra patients in the emergency wards or general wards. The sanctioned number of staff nurses is 283 and 88 head nurses.
Nurse-patient ratio
The nurse-patient ratio of 1:6 in Government hospitals was fixed way back in 1961. In recent years, the patient load had gone up at the MCH and each department were expanded into various speciality wings. However, the number of nursing staff remained the same at the MCH.
"We have an acute shortage of nurses and paramedical staff and it has badly affected our quality of service. We have been adding on advanced facilities and clinics, but do not have enough nurses to run these facilities. In fact, there has never been any attempt to assess our actual requirement of nurses," the Medical College Principal, G. Sujathan, said.
Even the nurse-patient ratio of 1:6 was fixed with no thought about the three-shift duty system in hospitals, the secretary of Kerala Government Nurses Association, P. K. Thampy, said.
"Shortage of nurses is a problem common to all Government hospitals, because no posts have been created in the past few decades. The SAT Hospital with more than 700 beds and 1,000 in-patients has only 165 nurses. The Mother and Child Hospital with more than 400 beds has only 75 nurses," he said.
No clear policy
"There is also a lack of a clear policy for nurses' appointments. Most of the nurses are appointed on daily wages by the Kerala Health Research and Welfare Society and the Hospital Development Society from time to time, but some of them leave before they can be trained," Dr. Sujathan, said.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Science & Tech |
Entertainment |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2004, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
