Government fails to respond to shortage of nurses: TNA BY HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, FEB 8 - An acute shortage of nurses in the health sector has been cited as a major problem in Goa and in spite of this being highlighted before the government, it's been unattended for long according to the Trained Nurses Association (TNA) of India. The health care is expanding and so also are the health services. But the number of nurses is not increasing in the hospitals and this is indirectly affecting the public said Arvind B Kulkarani, president of the TNA, Delhi while addressing a press conference at the Goa Medical College (GMC) today. Kulkarni who has recently taken over as the president of the TNA is on a visit to various hospitals here is Goa to apprise himself of the problems faced by nurses here. He said that there is no balance between the patients and the health care providers here. According to Kulkarni, more number of nursing schools and colleges are required and the government should fill in the vacancies in the government hospitals while simultaneously creating new vacancies. Fairly the nurse to patient ratio should be 3: 1. While at the district hospitals this ratio should be 5: 1 according to Kulkarni. In specialized units and Intensive Care Units the ratio should be 1:1 he said. However, citing the example of the GMC he said that for every 30 to 40 patients in a ward there are only two to three nurses. There are vacant posts of nurses at the GMC according to Nilima Rane, president of the Goa Chapter of the TNA. But these posts are not filled. There are six vacant posts at the GMC at present she said. The leave vacancies too remain unfilled. At times here are ad-hoc postings and additional charges are given to nurses according to Kulkarni. While according to Rane the TNA had submitted a memorandum to the government a year back and also forwarded a copy of the same to the present government there has been no reply. There are nearly 1500 nurses in Goa with around 1150 being members of the TNA. The interest of the TNA is to compete with the international standards of nursing, upgrade the skills and knowledge of nurses, help in nursing education and also attend to problems faced by nurses according to Kulkarni.
