Staff shortage, delay in creating new posts plague Kozhikode MCH
Two back-to-back fire-and-smoke breakouts at a recently built block of the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, have also brought to light the staff shortage and the delay in creating new posts plaguing the premier healthcare institution that caters to the medical needs of patients from at least five districts in north Kerala.
As many as 151 patients had to be evacuated and shifted elsewhere after smoke billowed out of the UPS battery room attached to the MRI scanning unit on the ground floor of the new building, constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), on the night of May 2. Just three days later, scores of patients who were brought back to the building from other wards in the hospital had to be evacuated again when another fire broke out in an operating theatre on its sixth floor.
According to a section of medical staff at the hospital, these incidents are also a result of not focussing on the creation of new posts in the new block. They claim that a similar situation is prevailing in the super-speciality block and the Tertiary Cancer Care Centre and Research Institute as well.
Along with this, there is a crisis related to staff shortage across various blocks in the hospital. Sources say that there are 393 posts of doctors, of which 61 are vacant. There are 279 posts of assistant professors, of which 53 are vacant. Eight of the 61 posts of associate professors are vacant. Of the 53 posts of professors, three are vacant. The nurses-patient ratio, which should have been 1:4 ideally, is reportedly 1:50 now. The hospital is still following the staff pattern developed in the 60s, though the patient load has increased manifold over the years.
In a letter to the Director of Medical Education in 2017, the then principal of the medical college had sought the creation of nine posts of professors, 18 associate professors, 35 assistant professors, and 37 senior resident doctors at the PMSSY block. Last December, the hospital authorities again sought the creation of new posts in the building, which was opened in 2023.
At the tertiary cancer care centre, one post each of associate professor in radiotherapy and radiation physics, and two posts of assistant professors were proposed. One post of head nurse, eight posts of staff nurse, and four posts of nursing assistants were sought to be created, along with those of paramedical staff. Sajith Cherandathur, Kozhikode district president of the Kerala Government Nurses' Union (KGNU), says that the super-speciality block, opened in 1996, requires around 200-250 posts of nurses, none of which have been created so far.
Meanwhile, the government proposed to create 150 new posts at the PMSSY block after the recent incidents. The KGNU functionaries point out that the shortage is now being addressed through either rearrangement of staff or by appointing temporary workers under the hospital development society. They demanded that, instead of this, the government appoint permanent staff through the Kerala Public Service Commission.
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