Dinesh Kamath's news 'Vashi civic hospital in a mess' that was published in Newsband

Vashi civic hospital in a mess

By Dinesh Kamath

Above Picture: NMMC Hospital at Vashi

NAVI MUMBAI: Vashi Civic Hospital is visited by a huge number of patients but the staff members attending to these patients are not adequate in number. There is scarcity of nurses owing to which those nurses who are on duty have to overwork. Each nurse has to do the job of at least three or more nurses. These problems lead to these nurses suffering from stress which in turn gives birth to other stress-related ailments.

Owing to scarcity of nurses, those nurses already employed here can’t even go on leave. They get no time to attend to their family members too owing to the huge amount of work they have to do in the hospital. They even have to work overtime many a times which results in occurrence of domestic problems for these nurses.

Whether it is general ward of the hospital or Intensive Care Unit or OPD, one can notice the scarcity of nurses here and huge number of patients who are seeking medical treatments.

These nurses did ask the authority to recruit more nurses so that they don’t find their duties too burdensome. The hospital does hire nurses on contract basis but once the contract period is over, these nurses have to quit owing to which the nurses who are left behind have to perform additional duties. There are times when some nurses go on maternity leave and some on medical leave. At such times the nurses who are on duty face a real tough time owing to load of works that fall on their shoulders. Fed up of such horrible situation in the hospital, some nurses prefer to get themselves transferred and when they leave the authorities do not even care to replace them by new recruits.

If one goes by the statistics relating to nurse-patient ratio, one is bound to be horrified by the big number of patients each nurse has to attend to. The nurses of the hospital are totally fed up by the insensitivity displayed by the authorities in tackling this major problem.

“Owing to this problem, it is not only the nurses who suffer but also the patients cannot get the medical treatment up to their satisfactions. Due to the negligence displayed by the authorities it is the name of the hospital that gets tarnished. It is high time the authorities took up this issue in most serious manner and tackled it once and for all,” said a nurse belonging to this hospital and who sought anonymity.

“Owing to shortage of nurses, we have to wait for hours to get the medical treatment. Some ailments need to be attended to urgently since even a little delay can convert that small ailment into a major one. Such cases have occurred in this hospital but yet nobody cares,” said one patient of the hospital.  

The authorities of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation have been time and again informed about this serious issue but their reply is that things happen according to procedures in a government set up and that they, on their part, have done their duties of asking the government to recruit sufficient nurses in the hospital. “The ball is now in the court of the government and we can’t do anything but just wait for government to take necessary action. Till then the best we can do is hire some nurses on contract basis to make life easy for permanent nurses in the hospital,” said one NMMC official.

Even the doctors have to pay the penalty for there being shortage of nurses in the hospital. The recent scuffle with the on-duty doctor by a patient’s relative is a case in point. The attack on the doctor had led to all the other doctors stopping their duties and going on protest strike. Only after the administration promised tight security for doctors and other staff members in the hospital, the doctors called off the strike and resumed their duties.

The NMMC authorities and the hospital authorities now have to work out two plans – one to ensure that there is adequate staff and the other to provide adequate security to every staff member, especially the doctors.

The police commissioner too has been approached to try and help out a perfect security plan within the hospital. The hospital comprises of its own security staff as well as police security but both are not adequate enough to prevent forced intrusions. Hence there is a desperate attempt being made to tighten the security in the civic hospital at Vashi from every angle – whether it is strength of the staff or number of security or police persons or the number of patients who should be allowed to enter the hospital at a time etc.