Karnataka government is contemplating on having district cadres to overcome the problem of doctors and nurses not willing to serve in the rural areas. The decision comes in the wake of a recent appointment where 492 doctors were selected and 81 of them did not report to work necessitating the cancellation of appointment orders. The understaffed hospitals in the State are facing an increasing number of unsafe deliveries in the rural areas despite the government efforts to educate people in the field. Doctors and the auxiliary nursing midwives who were given quarters in the vicinity of the hospitals did not stay there instead preferred to reside in the heart of the districts.

Although the department of health and family welfare had completed the formalities of appointing 101 postgraduate doctors on contract, at least 100 specialists were needed at taluk hospitals. There were more than 16,000 backlog posts and recruitment for 13,000 of them had been made around the end of January 2003, Kagodu Thimmappa, minister for health and family welfare, government of Karnataka told Pharmabiz.com.

Meanwhile the process of recruitment of para medical staff such as technicians, radiographers and pharmacists to 3,000 posts was going on. The rank list had been finalised and the recruitment would be over by the end of February 2003.

According to the health minister, the major problem faced by the government hospitals was a shortage of nurses. At a Cabinet sub-committee meeting headed by him permission was given to five educational institutions in the State to start B.Sc (Nursing) in the State.

The colleges that have been given a go-ahead by the Cabinet are Bhandari Nursing College Foundation in Mangalore, Thirumala Charitable Trust, Gayathri Education Academy, Srinivasa Vidya Niketan and Dhanavantri Trust in Bangalore.

The Government College of Nursing in the State provided around 150 nurses annually. The shortage faced was around 2650 at the leading government hospitals in the State like the Victoria, Bowring and Lady Curzon, KC General, Vani Vilas in Bangalore and 11 centres in the remaining districts in the State.

The shortfall of nursing staff resulted in the under-utilisation of beds at the leading government hospitals in the State, noted the health minister. "Though the capacity of the 100-year Victoria Hospital was 700 beds, only 500 beds were occupied. In the Shimoga Government Hospital only 450 of the 600 beds were occupied. He said the trend among the people was to opt for nursing homes even in the rural areas mainly because of the availability of nurses and doctors.