Shortage of manpower plagues Pune’s Sassoon Hospital amid soaring patient numbers

According to hospital data, at least 97 of the sanctioned 171 Class IV posts at B J Medical College are vacant while 381 posts are lying vacant at Sassoon General Hospital. The sanctioned strength is 834. The issue of vacancies in Class IV posts has been persisting for sometime even as the state government encouraged such posts to be filled on a constractual basis.

Among the top Class I posts of professors and associate professors, there are 29 vacant ones while 20 posts of assistant professors need to be filled at B J Medical College. At least 97 Class I and Class II posts at Sassoon General Hospital have to be filled. Another 79 Class III posts (clerical) are vacant at B J Medical College.

On Friday, Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao and District Collector Rajesh Deshmukh visited the Sassoon General Hospital and underscored the need to fill up the vacant posts to ensure quality healthcare to the patients getting admitted to the hospital.

The visit came in the wake of the directions issued by the state government to conduct a review of the preparedness of government and corporation-run hospitals in each district, following the spate of deaths at the state-run hospitals in Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The district administrations have been directed to submit their reports to the government.

During their review of Sassoon General Hospital, Rao, along with Deshmukh, visited the neonatal intensive care unit, trauma care unit , medicine store and ward number 16. They admitted that the health facility was overburdened with a huge turnover of patients and that there were shortfalls.

“There are bound to be some lacunae while managing such a large health facility. Daily, there are at least 2,000 people in the out patient department. At least 1,300-1,400 beds at the 1,800-bed hospital are occupied and while 300-350 patients are discharged daily, a similar number also get admitted to the hospital,” said Rao admitting the shortage of manpower with at least 470-480 Class IV posts lying vacant at both Sassoon General Hospital and B J Medical College.

Filling the nursing vacancies will be taken up on a war footing and cleanliness work undertaken by contractual staff needs to be inspected, said Rao. “There is an adequate stock of medicines but at Sassoon General Hospital, we have requested the dean to submit a list of requirements and the report will be sent to the government shortly,” said the divisional commissioner.

Authorities at Sassoon General Hospital said they require an annual supply of medicines worth Rs 12-13 crore and another Rs 6-7 crore worth of surgical consumables.

Dr Sanjiv Thakur, dean of B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, said that being a tertiary hospital, a large number of patients are sent here from various parts of the district and surrounding areas. “We want to give the best possible treatment and have launched several initiatives in this regard,” he said.