Close on heels of transfer of twenty doctors from the associated hospital of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC), the health department has ordered transfer of forty nurses and technicians from here. Transfer orders of some more nurses and other staff members from the hospital are expected to arrive soon. The hospital administration however has refused to relieve these staff nurses and technicians till their replacements are offered to the hospital.
The Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital Dr K K Tamta accepted that many nurses and technicians deployed in the hospital have been transferred. He said that the transferred nurses and technicians would be relieved only when their replacements arrive in the hospital. “We are somehow managing things after the doctors were transferred from here but the transfer of nurses and technicians would completely derail the services in the hospital. The hospital is already short of hands in these two departments,’’ he said.
The worry of Dr Tamta is understandable as the hospital administration and patients are already facing problems due to recent transfer of 20 doctors of state health services from the hospital. The problems of the patients are bound to be aggravated further if the department goes ahead with the transfer of nurses and technicians without sending their replacements.
The associated hospital of the GDMC has only 128 nurses out of sanctioned 175 posts. Incidentally these 175 posts are basic requirement for a 300 bed hospital. The hospital in practice has more than 500 beds in the male and female wings. The management of the medical college last year had given option to the serving nurses of the hospital to either remain in their parent department of medical health or get into the services of medical college. The order however was not pursued and the situation has remained unchanged.
The spokesperson of Uttarakhand Nurses Association laxmi Punetha said that the nurses are receiving the transfer orders. “We have been told that only those nurses who are deployed for more than ten years in the hospital are being shifted. The association would register its protest when some discrepancy in the order is observed and partially in transfers is witnessed,’’ she said.