NEW DELHI: Jasodhara, fondly called Jasso, is an indispensable person for many relatives and attendants of patients at AIIMS. For them, she is the only person they can rely on for nursing assistance as the country's premier medical institute faces an acute shortage of paramedical staff.
The 36-year-old woman, widowed at an early age, takes care of the basic needs of patients such feeding and giving them sponge bath, administering medications as well as managing intravenous lines when their family members are not around.
But Jasodhara is not alone. AIIMS' inability to ramp up its infrastructure and manpower requirements has led to the growth of a parallel economy in and around the institute, say doctors. From private nurses to agents selling medicines and equipment, the hospital wards are full of people who make a living from the patients admitted there.
Outside, there are over 40 diagnostic centres and labs which provide services since the institute has a waiting list of over one month for the simplest of services such as X-ray.
"I am not a trained nurse but with experience I have learned some of the skills. Also, there are many things, for example, taking a patient to the toilet or giving him/her a bath, which a hospital nurse will never do but I can," said Rajni Kumari as she waited outside the AB-1 ward of AIIMS' main building to solicit families looking for nursing assistance.
While the private nurses charge anywhere between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 daily, the attendants charge Rs 800-1,000 daily. AIIMS officials said more than 500 such people were working in various wards of the hospital.
"These days most couples are working professionals. They cannot afford to take long leaves to attend to their kin. These are the people who usually hire such a 'nurse' or 'attendant'. The maximum number of such people can be found in the private ward, cancer hospital and the gynaecology ward," said an official.
AIIMS, which has about 2,500 beds, has 5,000 sanctioned posts for nurses of which 700 are vacant. "Nurses work in three shifts, which means that at any given time there are around 1,400 nurses working at the hospital. If you count on the leaves, the number goes down further," said a senior doctor, trying to explain the reason for sudden increase in demand for private attendants/nurses.
Doctors say besides nursing, there are other areas where private services are available. "Path labs, imaging services and private accommodation are mushrooming in adjoining areas," said a senior doctor adding, even a simple x-ray takes one month at AIIMS.
Officials say there are touts who leverage the long waiting list for surgeries to fill their own coffers by acting as a go-between the private hospitals.
A report prepared by the AIIMS administration a few years ago showed waiting list in the various departments ranged from two months to a year or more. "The problem will remain until we are able to equip our primary health centres and tertiary hospitals in states with necessary infrastructure and manpower. There seems to be a lack of dedication among a section of the faculty and nurses as private hospitals have started paying much higher salaries," said a doctor.
"At night, there are only three to four nurses in the ward with over 30 patients. They often tell attendants to manage the intravenous line, remove secretions and mucus from the airways, which is a risk job. I had enough family members to attend to my father but we had to hire a private nurse so that such necessities are addressed effectively," said Nishant Saxena, whose father is undergoing treatment for abdominal tuberculosis at AIIMS.
Dr Deepak Aggarwal, a senior neurosurgeon at the hospital, denied there is any crisis of nurses but said people were hiring attendants for their own convenience. "In my view, only a few patients who do not have relatives to sit around 24X7 hire attendants. As of now, there is a clear policy or identification procedure for such people," he said.
The 36-year-old woman, widowed at an early age, takes care of the basic needs of patients such feeding and giving them sponge bath, administering medications as well as managing intravenous lines when their family members are not around.
But Jasodhara is not alone. AIIMS' inability to ramp up its infrastructure and manpower requirements has led to the growth of a parallel economy in and around the institute, say doctors. From private nurses to agents selling medicines and equipment, the hospital wards are full of people who make a living from the patients admitted there.
Outside, there are over 40 diagnostic centres and labs which provide services since the institute has a waiting list of over one month for the simplest of services such as X-ray.
"I am not a trained nurse but with experience I have learned some of the skills. Also, there are many things, for example, taking a patient to the toilet or giving him/her a bath, which a hospital nurse will never do but I can," said Rajni Kumari as she waited outside the AB-1 ward of AIIMS' main building to solicit families looking for nursing assistance.
While the private nurses charge anywhere between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 daily, the attendants charge Rs 800-1,000 daily. AIIMS officials said more than 500 such people were working in various wards of the hospital.
"These days most couples are working professionals. They cannot afford to take long leaves to attend to their kin. These are the people who usually hire such a 'nurse' or 'attendant'. The maximum number of such people can be found in the private ward, cancer hospital and the gynaecology ward," said an official.
AIIMS, which has about 2,500 beds, has 5,000 sanctioned posts for nurses of which 700 are vacant. "Nurses work in three shifts, which means that at any given time there are around 1,400 nurses working at the hospital. If you count on the leaves, the number goes down further," said a senior doctor, trying to explain the reason for sudden increase in demand for private attendants/nurses.
Doctors say besides nursing, there are other areas where private services are available. "Path labs, imaging services and private accommodation are mushrooming in adjoining areas," said a senior doctor adding, even a simple x-ray takes one month at AIIMS.
Officials say there are touts who leverage the long waiting list for surgeries to fill their own coffers by acting as a go-between the private hospitals.
A report prepared by the AIIMS administration a few years ago showed waiting list in the various departments ranged from two months to a year or more. "The problem will remain until we are able to equip our primary health centres and tertiary hospitals in states with necessary infrastructure and manpower. There seems to be a lack of dedication among a section of the faculty and nurses as private hospitals have started paying much higher salaries," said a doctor.
"At night, there are only three to four nurses in the ward with over 30 patients. They often tell attendants to manage the intravenous line, remove secretions and mucus from the airways, which is a risk job. I had enough family members to attend to my father but we had to hire a private nurse so that such necessities are addressed effectively," said Nishant Saxena, whose father is undergoing treatment for abdominal tuberculosis at AIIMS.
Dr Deepak Aggarwal, a senior neurosurgeon at the hospital, denied there is any crisis of nurses but said people were hiring attendants for their own convenience. "In my view, only a few patients who do not have relatives to sit around 24X7 hire attendants. As of now, there is a clear policy or identification procedure for such people," he said.
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