The nursing infrastructure at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH) is under severe strain as the hospital is catering to a patient load far exceeding its officially sanctioned bed capacity. While the hospital has a sanctioned capacity of 595 beds, the number of occupied beds has crossed 1,100, according to information available with the hospital. Despite this substantial increase in patient load, the sanctioned nursing establishment has not been correspondingly enhanced. The revised nursing post-position statement for September 2026, submitted by IGGMCH to the Commissioner, Medical Education and Research, Mumbai, brings out the extent of the staffing shortage. Against 475 sanctioned posts in the nursing cadre, only 393 are filled, leaving 82 posts vacant. The largest shortage is in the category of Adhiparicharika (staff nurses).

 

Against 396 sanctioned posts, 337 are filled and 59 are vacant. In the case of Parisevika, nine posts are vacant against 54 sanctioned posts. There are also vacancies in supervisory and specialised nursing categories. The hospital's own revised statement has specifically stated that immediate action should be taken to fill the vacant posts. But vacancies are only part of the problem The figures, however, point towards a more fundamental issue. Even if all the 82 vacant posts are filled, the nursing establishment would still be based largely on the sanctioned capacity of 595 beds, whereas the hospital is currently handling a patient burden that at times exceeds 1,100 beds. In other words, IGGMCH is not merely functioning with fewer nurses than sanctioned.

 

It is providing healthcare services to a patient population substantially larger than the capacity for which its nursing establishment was originally sanctioned. This has direct implications for patient care. Nurses are responsible for medication administration, monitoring vital parameters, maintaining records, assisting doctors during procedures, attending to emergency situations, shifting patients, wound care, post-operative care and communicating with relatives, apart from routine bedside nursing. The September nursing statement has brought a contradiction to the fore: IGGMCH has 82 nursing vacancies even against its existing sanctioned establishment, but the larger concern is that the establishment itself appears inadequate for the hospital’s present-day patient load. With a sanctioned capacity of 595 beds and occupancy crossing 1,100, the Government will have to look beyond filling vacancies and undertake a comprehensive revision of the hospital’s manpower structure if quality patient care is to be sustained.