‘2,500 posts lie vacant in govt hospitals, three batches of nurses yet to be recruited’

Although the government admits that there are nursing posts lying vacant, it does not specify their exact number. But the Medical Service Centre, a voluntary health organisation, claims that there are nearly 25,000 posts lying vacant in government hospitals.

“Three batches of nurses are yet to be recruited, and the batch of 2008 is about to finish its training. Despite nearly 25,000 posts lying vacant, none have been absorbed. Recently, only 700 posts were filled by the state government before the panchayat elections,” said a source at the Medical Service Centre.

Officials at Shastha Bhavan, however, said there are not enough vacancies to absorb all the students passing out from nursing schools every year.

“With nearly 700 girls passing out each year, it becomes difficult to recruit them all,” said Madhabi Das, a senior official at the Shastha Bhavan.

Anita Majhi, who got her nursing diploma from the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital in 2005, said: “Earlier, nurses used to get immediate appointments, but now we have to wait for years. There were nearly 1,300 students in my batch who are yet to receive their appointment letters.”

After struggling for years to get their voice heard, the Health Department has finally agreed to absorb the nurses of 2004-05 batch.

At the NRS Medical College and Hospital, where a new respiratory care unit was inaugurated recently, the hospital authorities had to reshuffle their existing staff, and nurses claim that the soon-to-be-opened radio therapy unit will further stretch the limited staff.

Hospital superintendent LK Ghosh, however, denied that the hospital had staff shortage.