Specialities being added, staff remains same over years
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Oct 3: All is not well at the Super Speciality Hospital (SSH), Shireen Bagh as its functioning is marred due to the undue interference of non-nursing cadre officials with the matters of nurses ranging from their duty roasters to that of sanction of leaves, while as the hospital appears to be struggling with the shortage of the staff which is burdening the already existing nurses.
A group of nurses working at the hospital told Excelsior, on the condition of anonymity to avoid the backlash, that the RMO appointed by the Medical Superintendent as their in-charge is interfering in their matters despite not being from their cadre and with the result, the hospital administration has sidelined the Matron who ideally should be taking a call on various matters about nurses.
“The Matron who heads us has been side-lined by the hospital administration through the RMO; she is taking a call on all the major decisions concerning the nurses working at the hospital due to which we are suffering,” the nurses said.
With regard to the sanction of leaves to the nurses, as per the nurses, the RMO decides whether to sanction leaves or not, even if the leave is sanctioned by the Matron, “the same is cancelled by the RMO concerned on baseless grounds; even queries are being raised on the sanctioned leaves and explanations sought from those who availed leaves even on the medical grounds,” they said.
On the other hand, while everywhere else, after a 24-hour duty shift, the nurses are entitled to a 3-day off, there is a total contrast of that being observed at the SSH. The nurses said that they have been directed to perform a 24-hour duty shift but take only 2 days off which they said is pure injustice.
Notably, on the staff shortage front, recently GMC disengaged the manpower engaged under ECRP out of which several people were performing their duties at SSH, Shireen Bagh and on top of it, several people from the SSH were already taken to the DRDO Hospital which created further gaps in the staff strength.
“Now, those engaged under ECRP are gone and so are those who have been taken to the DRDO and other hospitals; they have not been even called back to fill the further gaps that have now been created at the SSH,” the aggrieved nurses said.
Pertinent to mention here, that the staff which was deputed from SMHS to DRDO Srinagar has been called back to fulfil the gaps at SHMS by the GMC, however, the matter appears to be deteriorating at the SSH which is currently struggling with the staff shortage as the members of their staff remains deputed to DRDO Srinagar.
With the shortage of staff, patient care has been taking a hit at the SSH, with the situation being worse at the Cardiology ICU where the patient-nurse ratio is beyond imagination. As per nurses, at times at the Cardiology ICU, one nurse is supposed to take care of over 15 patients.
On the other side, while the hospital is adding more specialities, there has not been any staff recruitment made so far, even as for the recently started kidney transplant, the hospital sans the required staff, while as the already existing staff is further burdened.
To get the official version of the issue, the Medical Superintendent, SSH Shireen Bagh, Dr Jehangir Bakshi was contacted, but he did not respond to repeated calls from this reporter, however, his deputy Dr Musavir said that the leaves of the nursing staff stand cancelled due to COVID except for maternity and medical leave.
“We are granting leaves to only those who have emergencies and the same is done after following a proper process,” he said. On the issue of duty roaster, he remained tight-lipped and said that the official roaster is 10 to 4:30.
About the interference of the RMO in the matters of the nurses, he said that RMO is in-charge of their overall supervision and is acting as per the hierarchy.
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