Nursing shortages hit Chandigarh’s PGIMER, top govt hospitals; vacancies cross 550

While GMCH and GMSH have reported “no delay in promotions”, PGIMER attributed its stagnation in nursing promotions to an ongoing restructuring exercise and a judicial restraint.

The minister stated that PGIMER’s “3rd Cadre Review” for various non-faculty posts, including nursing, had been carried out. However, the Central Administrative Tribunal, Chandigarh, in OA 751 of 2022 (Hemant Kumar and others vs PGI), had on July 17, 2025, restrained PGIMER from conducting its Departmental Promotion Committee for the post of Assistant Nursing Superintendent until certain compliances are met, which must be completed within six months.

Despite the shortages, PGIMER told the Centre that it is “working beyond its optimal capacity in all the patient care areas so that the services are not adversely affected.” GMCH and GMSH said OPD, emergency, and trauma care continue to be managed with the available workforce.

The reply also confirms that all three hospitals routinely engage nursing and paramedical staff through outsourcing based on “functional requirement,” and that filling newly created and vacant posts is an “ongoing administrative process.”

Reacting to the data, Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari, who raised the query, said staffing optimisation was essential for the smooth functioning of tertiary-care institutions.

“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,” Tewari said.

He added that adequate staffing in public hospitals was not only a governance imperative but a prerequisite for patient safety and service quality.