Govt nurses work at private hospitals

NEPALGUNJ, Feb 28: Ram Kumari Budha Thapa is a nurse who works 16 hours a day and lives in quarters at Bheri Zonal Hospital. She has to work eight hours in the hospital but she also works an additional eight hours in a private hospital.



Similarly, the priority for Sunita Prajapati, another nurse who lives in the same quarters, is work at a private hospital rather than at the zonal hospital.[break]



Nurses have to be on duty round the clock; so the hospital has provided them living quarters. But because of the attraction of private hospitals for nurses, patients at the zonal hospital complain that the nursing service there is very poor.



Birendra Gharti of Dhadhabara, Bardia district, who was injured in a road accident, said he had to ask three times just for a saline.



“The nurses do not stay put in the hospital. The intern students alone are unable to handle the press of patients,” he said. The nurses run off to the private hospitals after signing the attendance register and the responsibility of providing nursing care falls on the interns. The intern nurses, for their part, complain that they are not getting a chance to learn from the senior nurses as the latter are not at work in the hospital. “Senior sisters leave the hospital, ordering us to see properly to the work,” an intern said, “How can we provide a good service if we cannot learn properly?”



The hospital administration says it has been difficult to provide a quality service after the nurses with permanent tenure started working at private centers. “We have repeatedly cautioned them about the problems the hospital is facing because of their absence,” Bharat Prasain, chairman of the hospital development committee, said. “Despite our warnings, they are not obeying us.”



He said that among the 24 nurses at the hospital, most are working at private centers. Some are studying for a Bachelor of Nursing without taking any leave.



“They are following in the footsteps of the doctors in working at private hospitals,” an employee said. “What kind of service can be expected of a nurse who works 16 hours continuously?” he complained.



All the nurses serving in private centers and are studying have nevertheless managed to show their attendance at the government hospital.



However, nurse Badhu Thapa claimed that she works in the private hospital after completing her duties at the government hospital. “Why can nurses not work at private centers when the doctors are engaged concurrently at various places?” she asked.

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