Top hospitals face staff crunch; Centre confirms 834 vacancies

The city’s three major government health institutions — the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Government Medical College and Hospital in Sector 32 (GMCH-32) and the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital in Sector 16 (GMSH-16) — have more than 800 nursing and paramedical vacancies, the Union Health Ministry has told Parliament.

Responding to an unstarred question by Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav placed detailed figures on the sanctioned and vacant posts, admission of staffing shortages and status of promotions across these institutions.

According to the reply, the PGIMER alone has 247 vacant nursing posts and 120 paramedical vacancies. The GMCH-32 reported 281 vacant nursing posts and 86 paramedical vacancies, while the GMSH-16 showed 30 nursing and 70 paramedical posts lying vacant. The Centre also confirmed that the PGIMER was running beyond its optimal capacity to ensure patient services were not affected.

The ministry has stated that the GMCH-32 and the GMSH-16 have indicated no delay in promotions, while the PGIMER’s nursing promotions are currently held up due to an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Chandigarh, that restrained the institute from conducting its Departmental Promotion Committee meeting until compliance requirements are met within six months.

On whether the shortage has hit OPD, emergency or trauma services, the Centre stated that those were being managed with the available staff at the GMCH and the GMSH, while the PGIMER has conveyed it is overstretched. Nursing and paramedical staff continue to be hired through outsourcing based on the hospital requirements. The government added that the creation and filling of posts was a continuous administrative process.

Speaking to The Tribune, Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari said the shortage raised serious concerns about the functioning of the city’s premier public hospitals. “My question was regarding the vacancies in nursing and paramedical staff in the PGIMER, GMCH-16 and GMCH-32. Staffing and human resource optimisation is a pre-requisite for a smooth functioning of any medical institution. All pending vacancies must be immediately filled and the ‘arbitrariness intrinsic to outsourcing processes’ needs to be proscribed by the administrations of all these hospitals immediately,” he said.