Bengaluru hospitals short of staff

Bengaluru: Several private hospitals in the city are facing acute shortage of doctors, nurses, ward boys and helpers amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic, an official said on Thursday.

"There is actually acute shortage of manpower in Bengaluru hospitals, especially nurses, ward boys and aayahs (helpers). Even before Covid, we had a little shortage but after Covid they all left in droves," Karnataka chapter Indian Medical Association (IMA) official Ravindra told IANS.

He roughly estimated the shortage to be 6,000 doctors and about 12,000 - 18,000 nurses and ward boys.

A major reason Ravindra cited for the shortage is the fear of contracting the virus amid the pandemic as they discharge duties in hospitals.

"Some of them cannot work because they are pregnant or above 55, diabetic or other health problems. Some of them are not coming to work although they did not leave the job," he said.

Besides the scare of getting infected, the IMA official said some of the health workers themselves are already Covid positive, quarantined or admitted in hospitals.

In case of support staff, he said most of them are migrant workers from Gulbarga and other districts who panicked after seeing some videos of Covid victims being dumped and buried.

"They said if I have to die, I don't want to die in Bengaluru. I will die and get buried in my native place. After those videos went viral, quite a few have left," explained Ravindra, deciphering the social media impact as well.