Nurses fly out to greener pastures, Karnataka hospitals battle staff crunch

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Nurses-fly-out-to-greener-pastures-Karnataka-hospitals-battle-staff-crunch/articleshow/52393220.cms

Bengaluru: Ten nurses and hundreds of patients a day . The 120bed ESI Hospital in Indiranagar, which is flooded with people suffering from rabies, tetanus, measles and chickenpox through the year, is battling severe staff shortage. With all senior staff nurse posts lying vacant for years, things go for a toss during rainy season when dengue and chikungunya cases go up. The situation is no better in other government and private hospitals in the state.

This year, the health and family welfare department of Karnataka has recorded 2,118 vacancies of nurses and 1,504 of paramedical staff in government hospitals.So where all the nurses? Most of them are migrating abroad for better pay and work conditions, say experts.

"We are struggling to manage the hospital given the inadequate staff. Things go out of control during peak seasons, but we somehow take care of patients. The health department has asked us to outsource nurses, but that requires a lot of time and money.The existing nurses may be skilled, but seniors are a must to tackle patients with severe infection," an employee of the ESI Hospital said.

According to Dr Upendra Bojhani, assistant director at the Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bengaluru, India remains a major source of qualified nurse practitioners to many countries. "While better pay is a driving force for nurses leaving the country , there are other factors, including dissatisfaction with the work environment, lack of recognition and respect they deserve in the healthcare system and negative social attitude towards the profession."

Echoing the same, Dr Sudarshan H Ballal, chairman at Manipal Hospitals, said: "Most of them prefer to work in West Asia and the United States, stay there for a few years and come back to India.They do this for financial stability as well as better recognition.Working abroad not only improves their bank balance but also brings good exposure. When they return to India, it's easier for them to get employed in reputed hospitals," he said.