Private wards at Kamla Nehru Hospital, Shimla, to be operational

Shimla, February 9

Special wards that are lying shut for almost two years due to nursing staff crunch at Kamla Nehru Hospital, Shimla, will become operational soon.

In the governing council meeting of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) of the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC), the clearance was given to hire 10 staff nurses in outsource basis for the hospital. “We will make the special wards functional as soon as the nurses are hired,” said KNH MS Dr Ravinder Mokta.

The state mother and child hospital is around 40 nurses short of its required strength. The recruitment of 10 nurses will ease the burden on the existing staff.

In other key decisions in the meeting, it was decided to send the proposal for regularization of outsource workers, who have completed the required number of years, to the government. The governing council also decided to raise bank loans for setting up CT scan and PET scan machine at the hospital, and the government would repay the loan in installments.

“The hospital will talk to the banks and then the proposal will be sent to the government,” said an official who attended the meeting. The PET machine would be the first in the state and people would not be needed to travel outside for the test once it is set up.

Also, the tariff for ICU ambulances was fixed at Rs 20 per km. “However, the people from BPL category and those having Ayushman card and Himcare card would be able to use the facility free of cost,” said Digvijay Chauhan, a member in the governing council.