Healthcare in Sindh hamstrung by shortage of nurses

Caregivers complain of hospitals treating nursing depts like step children

KARACHI:

For a province burgeoning with a population of more than 50 million people and a viral threat at large, Sindh’s public healthcare sector has found itself to be severely short-handed at the most uncertain of times.

Longstanding vacancies in the sector and growing resentments among the nursing staff has left many of Sindh’s hospitals operating with one hand behind their back, causing patients to crowd and wait several hours for treatment.

Per Young Nurses Association of Sindh, the province’s public healthcare sector requires at least 10,000 nurses in order to operate without delays, but barely 4,000 nurses are currently stationed in government hospitals across Sindh.

Elaborating on openings within the sector, a representative of the organisation said that there are currently 954 vacancies for Grade 16 Staff Nurses and 702 vacancies for Grade 17 Senior Nurses. “This is in addition to 103 vacancies for Head Nurse Grade 18, 70 vacancies for Nursing Superintendent Grade 18 and 19 posts of Chief Nursing Superintendent Grade 19, which are all vacant,” the source informed.

Speaking in the regard, Sindh Health Department’s focal person for nursing Khairul Nisa Khan confirmed that there is a severe dearth of nurses in the province. According to Khan, Sindh has a cumulative strength of 11,000 available nurses, which too isn’t justified in comparison to the province’s burgeoning population.

Addressing the standard population-to-nurse ratio, Khan said that according to the World Health Organisation, at least 50 nurses are needed for every 10,000 people. Considering that the population of Sindh is almost 55 million, the province is in dire need of at least 260,000 nurses to support the overall healthcare system. “But there is an urgent need for at least 8,960 general nurses for government hospitals, 2,000 for intensive care units and 100 nurses for HDU units,” he shared.

Read More: PPHI to take over Larkana healthcare facilities

It is however interesting to note that Sindh houses a total of 19 nursing colleges, where out of the 266 posts for Grade 17 superintendents, over 89 are vacant to date. The total number of posts of Clinical Lecturer Grade 18 is 66, out of which 44 are vacant. In addition to that, two posts of Nursing Director and Principal Nursing College Jamshoro Grade 20, two posts of Deputy Director Nursing of Grade 19, two posts of Sindh Nursing Controller and Assistant Director Nursing Grade 18 one post of Deputy Controller Grade 17 is also still vacant.

Resultantly, nursing students being trained under nursing departments of Sindh’s government hospitals have been left in a quandary about their academic and professional fate. Speaking on the matter, Sindh Nursing Association President Ejaz Kaliary lamentingly said that government hospitals here tend to treat their nursing departments like step children. “The nursing staff has been deprived of promotions to the next grade for the past several years. Nursing Cadre Health Professional Allowance was not given in 2019. An additional 5,000 posts of Nursing Cadre Grade 16 and 17 should be sanctioned immediately, while the stipend for Nursing students should be increased from Rs15,880 to at least Rs30,000, while the management wing of nursing staff should be approved immediately,” he expressed while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2021.