‘Nursing colleges should provide nurses for Wenlock Hospital’
Health and Family Welfare Minister U.T. Khader said the 19 private nursing colleges using Wenlock District Hospital for clinical practice will be asked to provide
Health and Family Welfare Minister U.T. Khader said the 19 private nursing colleges using Wenlock District Hospital for clinical practice will be asked to provide nurses and help fill the shortfall at the hospital. Aarogya Raksha Samiti members of the hospital, Padmanabha and Khaleem Gerukatte, pointed out that the shortage of nursing personnel was affecting health services at the hospital. When Mr. Gerukatte said Kasturba Medical College (KMC) had not provided the number of nurses it had promised, a KMC representative said it had provided 150 nurses and that they were working in tandem with Wenlock Hospital’s nursing staff. Hospital Superintendent D.S. Shivaprakash said 95 nurses from the hospital were working in tandem with 150 KMC nurses who had also been deployed.
The hospital needs at least 100 more nurses, he said. Dr. Shivaprakash said nurses were leaving the hospital after working there for about two years for better prospects. Deputy Commissioner H.V. Darshan said those appointed nurses should henceforth be made to sign a bond to work in the hospital for three years. To meet the shortfall of nurses, the Minister asked Dr. Shivaprakash to prepare a policy to make private nursing colleges provide one nurse in proportion to the number of students doing clinical practice at Wenlock Hospital. The nursing colleges should bear the salary of that nurse. A similar formula should be worked out to make private physiotherapy colleges, whose students are sent for clinical practice at the hospital, deploy physiotherapists at the hospital.
“These private institutions should come forward to provide cost-effective health services at the hospital, which sees needy patients from different parts of the state and Kerala,” the Minister said. Ivan D’Souza, MLC, said the services of nursing students should be used for bed-making and other regular nursing needs at the hospital. The Minister said changes were proposed to the Karnataka State Civil Services (Regulation of Transfer of Medical Officers and Other Staff) Act to prevent hardship caused to government doctors and health care staff due to transfers and the resultant disruption in health services at those centres. “We will go ahead with ongoing counselling and transfer. The changes will be brought in after completion of the ongoing processes,” Mr. Khader said.
With an increase in malaria and dengue cases because of intermittent rain across Dakshina Kannada, the Minister asked people not to ignore fever and to seek treatment from a doctor at the earliest. He directed Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner Ravichandra Nayak to cancel the trade licences of business establishments that allow breeding of malaria- and dengue-carrying mosquitoes in their area.
The BriefWire