Private nursing attendants swarming hospital premises

NEW DELHI: Private attendants have become indispensable for patients at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), with patients primarily relying on these attendants instead of the nursing staff and/ or paramedical professionals at the country’s premier medical institute, even as it is facing a shortage of such staff.

According to an official at AIIMS, private attendants are bound to take care of basic needs of patients, such as feeding, giving them sponge bath, administering medication as well managing intravenous lines, when associates/relatives of the patients are not around.

These attendants are mostly unskilled and untrained from any medical institutions, but have learned such skills from practical experience.

Requesting anonymity, an attendant revealed that he was not a trained nurse, but with practical experience he honed his skills. There are also many duties that a staff nurse would refuse to do, like taking a patient to the toilet or giving him or her a bath.

There are numerous private attendants performing their duties at the hospital. “While private nurses charge anywhere between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 daily, attendants charge Rs 800-1,000 daily,” AIIMS officials said, adding that there are over 500 such people working in various wards of the hospital.

“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.

Nowadays, most couples are professionals and cannot afford to take long leaves to attend to their kin. Mostly, these are the people who usually hire such attendants.

“Most such people can be spotted in the private wards, cancer hospital and the gynaecology wards, said an official at AIIMS. Besides nursing, there are others areas, where private services are available.

“Path lab, imaging services and private accommodation are mushrooming in the adjoining areas. Even a simple X- ray takes one month at AIIMS,” they said.

Sometimes, these assistants become the link to private medical investigations centers mushrooming nearby the hospital. AIIMS, which has about 2,500 beds, has 5,000 sanctioned posts for nurses of which 700 are vacant.