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Nurse eligibility criteria to hamper nursing home licenses
The public health department during a recent inspection drive has started compelling nursing homes and hospitals to produce nurse’s registration documents
Given the requisite to have qualified nurses registered with the Maharashtra Nursing Council this year, the majority of city hospitals will face difficulty in getting new registrations or renewals under the Maharashtra Nursing Home Registration Act 1949 and Regulations 2021.
The public health department during a recent inspection drive has started compelling nursing homes and hospitals to produce nurse’s registration documents.
According to the rules, qualified nurses need to have a valid registration with the Maharashtra Nursing Council and every employer must produce their qualified nurse’s registration documents during the renewal of the hospital’s license.
The council has made it compulsory for qualified nurses to do regular renewals of their licenses. However, implementation of this rule has been ignored for a while and hospitals claim there is an acute shortage of qualified registered nurses in the city.
Dr Radhakishan Pawar, deputy director of health services, said, it’s a rule that qualified nurses registered with the council should have valid licenses and the health officials will ask the employers to produce the same during the inspection.
“We are following the rules and the same are being asked during the inspection. The hospitals should employ only registered and qualified nurses in their set-up if they want to improve the quality of care and services at their facilities,” he said.
In 2018, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had held the renewal of several nursing home licenses of hospitals and nursing homes on the basis that their nurses were not registered with the council. However, the civic body later stopped considering this criterion for renewing nursing home licenses.
Now, the authorities are considering enforcement of the MNHRA 1949 and Regulations 2021, the situation will be difficult for most hospitals to get renewals given the meagre number of registered nurses available in the city and across the state.
This year more than 500 hospitals in Pune will apply for renewal of their licenses.
Dr Sanjay Patil, chairman of Hospital Board of India, Pune Chapter, said, the PMC should give some relaxation during the renewals and new registration as there are very few qualified registered nurses in the city hospitals.
“Less than 30 per cent of nurses working in the city hospitals are qualified and registered nurses. The city itself has a smaller number of qualified nurses as most of the nurses move abroad or to a metropolitan city for better pay scale and opportunities. However, there is no rule that hospitals should employ only qualified registered nurses,” he said.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA), Pune chapter officials said, the problem of non-availability of qualified nurses needs to be debated.
The genuine shortage of qualified nurses should be taken up and more nursing colleges should be instituted in the state. However, health officials claim along with mandatory employment of qualified registered nurses even the in-house training of nurses which is rampant needs to be standardized through developing a systematic curriculum, and certification or accreditation of such courses.
Dr Bhagwan Pawar, health officer of PMC, said, that while providing new nursing home registrations we will consider only qualified and registered nurses employed by the hospitals. But in case of renewals, some relaxation will be given.
“However, during the renewal of licenses we will push the hospitals to have more qualified registered nurses at their hospitals,” he said.
