89% of Vani Vilas Hospital staff work on contract

A report from the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA) has found that only 11.4% of the 466 sanctioned staff positions at Vani Vilas Hospital are filled by permanent staff.

Although the other positions remain unfilled, Vani Vilas Hospital has been managing its operations with the help of contracted and outsourced staff. Moreover, the hospital is also facing a shortage of nurses.

On December 20, KSLSA chairman Justice B Veerappa conducted an inspection of Vani Vilas Hospital. The authority has now released a report to the Health Department, recommending that it hire permanent staff and also appoint more nurses.

The KSLSA report revealed that Vani Vilas Hospital should have 466 staff members, including doctors, paramedics, and others. However, only 53 of these positions have been filled. To make up for the shortage, the hospital has hired 546 staff members on a contractual or outsourced basis.

“Contractual staff are mainly among nurses and Group C and D staff, and this affects the quality of services,” a doctor at the hospital told DH. “A regular nurse at the hospital gets a monthly salary of Rs 30,000 to 35,000, whereas contract nurses who come through the National Health Mission get around Rs 11,000 for the same work. These nurses do 12-hour shifts in ICUs.”

The report states that the hospital does not meet the National Health Mission guidelines on staff nurse strength, which stipulates that there should be one nurse for every four patients in critical areas like the ICU. The doctor quoted earlier says, “Ideally, there should be eight to 10 nurses per shift in our ICUs, but we have only two to three.”

Hospital director Dr Savitha C told DH that the staff strength was approved years ago and needs to be increased. “Recently, 72 ICU beds were added, but there are not enough nurses for these beds,” she said, adding that around 176 nurses work at the hospital.

The hospital gets patients from all over Karnataka and other states. It has 40 to 50 child deliveries and 250 outpatient consultations per day, the KSLSA report states.

Dr Savitha noted that the number of beds must also increase. “At least 150 to 200 more beds are needed in the pediatric and Obstetrics and Gynecology sections combined,” she said. The hospital currently has 767 beds.

The KSLSA report praised the hospital for its cleanliness and excellent service.

Nimhans OPD block

Having inspected the Nimhans, KSLSA wrote to the government recommending to appoint an adequate number of neurologists and psychiatrists at district hospitals to reduce patient load at the institute. During its inspection, the authority noticed long queues at the Nimhans OPD block.