Telangana: Nursing staff crunch ails government hospitals

Hyderabad: The government hospitals in Telangana are facing hardship due to shortage of staff nurses. A few hospitals in rural areas have only two staff nurses. Those working as staff nurses are bearing extra burden due to shortage. Recently more than 1,600 staff were removed; but no new recruitment has been done by the government, while announcing filling of vacant posts in the Health department.

The newly appointed nurses are from the 2017 batch who were appointed in 2021. The government has recruited just 800 nurses in the last seven years. Nurses who were removed from services a month ago have condemned the step taken by the government. They said despite the shortage the government removed them from services. Consequently, patients and nurses are suffering.

They are facing hardships and we have lost our jobs. "The government had sacked 1,640 staff nurses who served during the pandemic. Only about 800 nurses replaced us on a regular basis, but the recruited strength is not sufficient to meet the demand.

The government hospitals are facing shortages. We were removed from service even the contract was till March 2022," said Anita, a nurse who was removed recently. People also allege that hospitals in rural areas are facing shortage of nurses. Guna Nidhi, a resident of Jagtiyal district, said Jagtiyal has good infrastructure. Apart from the district hospital, it has separate ENT hospitals. Also, sufficient doctors are there in all hospitals, but they have insufficient staff nurses. which is causing hardships to inpatients.

A nurse working in the Government Chest Hospital felt that "The current strength of nurses in the hospital is not adequate. We have to roam around the hospitals for any small task. The government is not recruiting new staff due to which patients are facing problems." Officials of the Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad said about 800 posts were recruited recently. More vacant posts are to be filled soon. Following the Chief Ministers orders, we are working on that. Apart from nurses, lab technicians and pharmacists will be hired.