Notices have been issued after KEM Hospital docs shared a video displaying the work load in absence of nurses.
Mumbai:
Nurses and ward boys MIA from Mumbai’s civic hospitals can be fired if they don’t report back to work tomorrow, civic physique BMC has warned. A memo naming absentee employees was launched by the BMC, or the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, because the three-day discover interval ended for a whole lot of workers refusing to indicate up for work.
The absenteeism has severely hampered take care of sufferers of the coronavirus illness at metropolis’s numerous civic-run hospitals, together with the COVID-19-only King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital the place a lot of sufferers are in a crucial situation.
“COVID-19 wards are special wards, which need at least one nurse manning four beds. So, we need at least 10 nurses in a COVID-19 ward with 40 beds. Right now, we only have two nurses for the entire ward. Sometimes we have one ward boy and sometimes none,” a health care provider on the KEM Hospital advised NDTV.
According to officers, metropolis’s civic hospitals are dealing with a 50% employees scarcity.
“The most severe shortage is of Class 4 employees (ward boys and attendants who lift bodies). Many workers have not been coming to work because of fear of the disease as proper safety kits have not been given in non-coronavirus wards,” a senior official of the Maharashtra Medical Council mentioned.
An affiliation of nursing employees condemned the absenteeism, however reiterated the demand for shorter shifts and good high quality private safety tools even in non-Covid wards.
“Not returning to work even after 72-hour notice period is not acceptable. Secondly, the medical and nursing administration, both, have to provide a healthy work environment with focus on safety and care for nurses if they get infected. PPE is must in non-Ccovid wards and many nurses have reported that they have got infected in non-Covid wards. Proper on-duty meals and water facilities are a must; staff may be charged a nominal fee, if required and no one should be forced to spend more than four-six hours in PPE kits,” Dr Swati Rane, vice-president of Clinical Nursing and Research Society mentioned.
On Monday, nurses mentioned a few of their colleagues who’re in quarantine have additionally been named within the listing of absentee workers.
The administration has assured that motion is not going to be initiated towards nurses in quarantine.
The municipal company first issued the discover after docs on the KEM Hospital launched a video saying COVID-19 deaths would possibly improve if nurses didn’t return to work.
The week-old video confirmed how three docs of the hospital have been struggling to take care of 35 critically-ill coronavirus sufferers in absence of nurses and ward boys.
While some nurses returned to work the identical day after the Dean assured them {that a} separate ward for therapy of healthcare staff was below building, majority stayed away.
Mumbai alone has reported greater than 47,000 instances of the coronavirus illness with 1,575 deaths – the best variety of instances and deaths for any metropolis within the nation.
