Maternity ward battles manpower, infrastructure shortage

Despite being located in the district headquarters, the maternity block in the Government Hospital is battling a serious lack of infrastructure. Meant to treat pregnant women, the block is unable to provide even basic facilities like beds.

This is largely attributed to the high patient influx at the hospital. While the ward was initially designed to equip 30 beds, the hospital has been receiving about 20 pregnant women on an average per day. Patients who have a normal delivery stay for two days in the hospital while those who have a C-section stay for seven days. This has forced doctors and nurses at the hospital to provide beds for mothers and the new-born instead of the pregnant. “We cannot force lactating mothers and the new-born to sleep on the floor. Instead, the pregnant are left to take that course,” said a doctor in the hospital, on condition of anonymity.

The pregnant women are forced to undergo labour pains on the floor till the last minute in the open space of the ward. The hospital authorities say that at any given time, there are at least 10 pregnant women lying on the floor due to the lack of beds. They also say that they need another two halls, each with 15 beds to cater to the number of patients who come to the hospital everyday. The ward urgently needs a waiting room for relatives and patients to wait in till the doctor or nurse attends to them.

“We are unable to control the number of visitors. There is only one security guard at any given time. There are instances when we called the police to come to our rescue,” said a nurse, working in the ward.

“We need at least five regular doctors to assist the civil surgeon. While there are six nurses at present, we need another six. Similarly, six security personnel are also required in addition to three more gynaecologists,” said K. Usha Kiran, civil surgeon at the maternity block.

This is the only district hospital in Telangana which performs more than 450 deliveries per month, but the district authorities are reportedly mounting pressure on the hospital to perform well without providing the required facilities. Even the incentives proposed for the staff in September 2013 have not been given to them though it was cleared by the Collector almost a year back.