Despite facing staff shortage in many departments, the institute moved 100 nurses to the Nursing Information Services, upsetting 'over-worked' doctors
Shakuntala, 58, has been coming from Bhiwani in Haryana to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for the last 10 weeks. She has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Though her treatment will start soon, the initial check-up itself took such a long time that meanwhile, her stage 3 cancer reached stage 4.
The doctors at the premier institute are blaming the shortage of paramedical staffers for such delays. Though it is an institution of national importance, AIIMS is facing a staff shortage in many departments. Despite that, recently, the hospital moved 100 nurses to the Nursing Information Services (NIS), a computer facility in the premises, a decision that has upset the doctors.
Dinesh Sharma, 29, son of Shakuntala Devi, rued: "The first time we came to AIIMS after being referred from our local hospital, we already knew that she had stage 3 cancer. By the time the long wait for the biopsy result came to an end, the cancer had reached stage 4. We were told the same thing every time — the hospital has a lot of patients and these things take time."
Shakuntala has now fractured her leg, which needs to be treated before the chemotherapy starts, says Sharma, who works in a factory in Bhiwani.
Commenting on the problem, Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, General Secretary of AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association (RDA), said: "We have gone to the Director several times, to urge him to reduce the workload on doctors, who are doing the additional work of looking at data entry of patients and taking blood samples, etc. But there is the same response every time — there is not enough nursing staff."
"We hear that and then we see these 100 nurses doing a 9-5 job, withdrawing the same salary, and simply transferring our calls to the IT department concerned," he added.
Currently, AIIMS has nearly 6,000 nurses working in three shifts. So, 1,700-1,800 nurses are available in the hospital at a time while there are close to 2,500 beds.
"NIS nurses are not even trained in computer operations. They are just working as mediators between us and the computer guys. But, why this effort? We can directly call the IT guys and get our problems resolved in half the time. These nurses do not even understand computer-related queries. They are withdrawing a normal nursing salary of around Rs60,000-70,000 per month, for work that would get a technical personal one-fifth of that pay," another doctor said, requesting anonymity.
...& ANALYSIS
- There is a nursing staff shortage in every government hospital, leading to an extra workload on doctors and delays in diagnosis and treatment. Work that can be taken care of by a technical person is being assigned to someone who is not qualified for the job, causing confusion at both ends.
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