Anantapur govt hospital plagued by staff crunch

Anantapur: The Government General Hospital (GGH) doctors, nurses and other para-medical staff are working under intense pressure everyday with hands tied amidst severe staff shortage and budgetary constraints.

Highlights:

• The staff members appointed to serve 350 patients are serving 1,200 patients everyday apart from 2,000 out-patients
• The hospital has only 168 doctors out of the required strength of 241
• 73 posts are lying vacant
• GO No 134 upgrading the district hospital to general hospital promised in 2000, is yet to be fulfilled

The hospital staff are working under intense pressure from patients who have grown by 300 per cent in the past 17 years. The staff appointed to serve 350 patients are serving 1,200 patients everyday apart from 2,000 out-patients. The nine deaths registered on a single day although were routine and natural deaths have once again woken up all concerned to highlight the grim staff position and the ever-increasing patient strength. The hospital has only 168 doctors out of 241 doctors’ strength.

Seventy-three doctor posts are lying vacant. A mere 134 nurseries are working out of 510 nurses’ strength. There are 57 male nurses and 44 female nurseries, sweepers 65, ward assistants 35, operation theatre staff 12, laboratory technicians 12 and lab attendants 12. In 2000, the then TDP government issued a GO No 134 upgrading the district hospital to general hospital but the GO was not implemented by the governments in the past 17 years.

The hospital is operating with a strength of 350 beds. After its up-gradation to general hospital, the bed strength increased to 500 but the staff strength was not proportionately increased. Over the years, the in-patients have had increased to 1,200 per day. The hospital staff strength is sufficient to serve only 350 patients.

As per the GO No 134, 510 new posts were sanctioned, of them 134 staff nurses’ posts were not filled. One staff nurse is catering to 100-150 patients and one attender is catering to 3-4 wards. Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas promised to implement the GO in 2014 itself but three years after the TDP came to power it is yet to fulfil its promise. People's representatives also failed to exert pressure on the government nor did the district ministers take any initiative in this regard.

Many doctors working in GGH are running their private nursing homes. Private nursing homes and hospitals are virtually looting poor and middle-class patients who are coming for better medical care. After looting the patients for days, they are sending them to government hospitals when the later are turning critical, just to save themselves from the disrepute of patient dying in their hospitals.

MLA V Prabhakar Choudhury who visited the hospital on Thursday told 'The Hans India' the nine deaths in hospital were natural and on an average 4-5 deaths were occurring in the hospital. In Kurnool district, 22-25 deaths occur every day and in Kadapa 7-8 deaths are occurring. Even on Thursday morning, two patients who consumed poison died in the hospital. He said the annual budget for medicines in GGH is Rs 3.84 crore.