PATIALA: Government Rajindera hospital, Patiala, is facing an acute shortage of nursing staff.The hospital is working with about one third of the sanctioned posts of nurses.As per Indian Nursing Council (INC) norms, there is requirement of 1000 nurses, 300 nursing sisters, 150 matrons and 105 nursing superintendent,it is learnt.

As per the norms of Indian Nursing Council there must be one nurse for one patient in one shift in sensitive departments, which means there is requirement of three nurses for one patient round the clock. But the reality is there is hardly one staff nurse is available in these departments who alone have to follow instructions of battalion of 35 to 40 doctors during her duty hours, disclosed Ms. Jeevanpreet Kaur, State President, Punjab Nurses Association.

She said that she will also raise this matter on 12th May.  On the other hand complaints from patients are also genuine as one nurse can not take care of two units i.e. 40 patients all alone. In general ward also there is only one nurse for twenty patients.

According to the earlier sanctioned posts during initial years of development in hospital, there were 317 posts which later on depreciated to 309. Among which 59 nurses are on ad hoc basis and getting Rs. 2500 to 3000 per month. Presently on regular basis there are 135 staff nurses. After this there is a promotional post named as Nursing Sister, in this category sanctioned posts are 52 whereas only 35 have been filled. In another promotional post pronounced as Matrons there are three posts, among which 1 seat is vacant. In the category of senior nursing sisters whose duty is in administration ward and they fix up the shifts for the whole staff, there are 52 sanctioned posts but only 35 are present. In the senior category of matrons there are 4 posts of which one is vacant.

Interestingly there is only one post of Nursing Superintendent which is vacant from last five years. On the part of patients there were 907 beds sanctioned for the whole hospital. These are distributed among departments named as ICU, CCU, ICCU, Emergency ward, Operation Theatre, pediatric surgery and dialysis. During night shifts nursing students are deputed to assist the staff nurse present there. 

Secondly as per INC's recommendations thirty percent leave is reserved among which even one percent is not present. For the cause of maternity leave, medical leave or weekend leave one can find hardly 80 to 90 nurses in the whole hospital.  But as per sanctioned 907 beds, there are 907 sanctioned posts for nurses.

Moreover all the sanctioned posts were according to the requirement of hospital from past many years back. But now number of departments has also been increased. In which five units of medicine and five units of surgery have been increased. In gynology department there were two units only at the time of sanctioning; now these have been increased.
Now there are three operation theatres, an indoor emergency ward also has been created. Surgery department, cardiology department and departments like ICU, ICCU, Frology, EEG, Endoscopies, Scanning, Emergency theatre, Diathermy are new in the list. From the old departments due to the shortage of nursing staff and their protest now the Eye ward has been shriveled up to one from two and similar happened to the medicine ward.