Resentment among patients? relatives

SHORTAGE OF nurses at the SRN Hospital is leading to resentment among patients? attendants. A few patients remain unattended for several hours due to the shortage. This has, at times, even resulted in deterioration in the condition of several patients.

SHORTAGE OF nurses at the SRN Hospital is leading to resentment among patients’ attendants. A few patients remain unattended for several hours due to the shortage. This has, at times, even resulted in deterioration in the condition of several patients.

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On Saturday night, shortage of nurses on duty led to delay in giving injection and other treatments including life-saving drugs to several patients of Ward no 1. Condition of a few patients even turned serious, forcing their attendants to purchase injection and other drugs from outside the hospital.

However, even after that when no one turned up to administer doses to the patients, the attendants became furious and created ruckus at the night superintendent’s room. The attendants demanded immediate deployment of some nurses in the ward.

All this took two hours and the attendants could only be pacified when a nurse was pressed into service.

Senior staff nurse Safia Khatun of the hospital said that she also came to know about the incident and added that such incidents had become common in the hospital due to serious shortage of staff nurses. Khatun said that despite several posts of staff nurse and sisters lying vacant after new wards had come up, no action was taken to fill up the posts. “Most of the staff nurses were forced to do overtime without any incentive,” she said. “We have regularly raised the problem at the government level but to no avail,” she added.