Bengaluru: Healthcare centres faced with staff and supply shortage

The Namma clinic in Subash Nagar has reported that it did not have medicinal supplies for the treatment of patients with diabetes. A clinic in Dayananda also reported a similar problem. It had only 1 tablet for this purpose which too was not the recommended metformin. The lack of facilities for refrigeration is leading to shortage in the storage of Insulin. A shortage has also been observed with respect to the Paracetamol tablets. Testing equipment for a complete blood test is unavailable in most clinics.Most patients are being referred to Primary Healthcare Centres or government hospitals but there too a series of problems have cropped up.

Staff shortage in medical centres 

More than 600 vacancies remain to be filled. The shortage is particularly felt in the domain of lab technicians, nurses for post natal care and pharmacists. A request has been filed with the government to initiate the recruitment process. The Health Commissioner of Karnataka has confirmed this development.  Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao has himself acknowledged the crisis in hand. Even in relation to specialist doctors, the shortage is close to 300 professionals. Certain districts have a 30-40% shortage of paramedical staff. The Health Department has made a recommendation to the government that this vacancy can be filled by contractual workers.