The private hospitals in the city are facing a huge staff crunch not just because of extending duty hours or staff being infected with Covid-19, but also because of the high remunerations offered by the district administration. The revised salary offering by government hospitals are almost double the salary in comparison to the private hospitals.

The state government hospitals are offering higher remunerations even to fresh and inexperienced doctors who are hired on contractual basis.

Dr Sunil Rao group chief operating officer, Sahyadri hospitals said, “Yes it is true that most of our staff are leaving because of lucrative offers by state government hospitals not just in Pune but also in Thane. For example, nurses are offered almost Rs 45,000 per month for a contractual period of 3 or 6 months which is almost double of what we pay, a round of Rs 20,000 to 25,000 per month. These sudden recruitments by the government are leading to a huge staff crunch in private sectors. Almost 50 of our nurses have left our hospitals in just two months to join government hospitals in Pune and Thane.”

While nurses are leaving in huge numbers, freshly passed MBBS, BAMS and BHMS doctors also prefer to join government hospitals because of the higher cost offered for the same job. An MBBS intern who is otherwise offered close to Rs 40,000 per month in a private hospital in a normal situation is now being offered Rs 70,000 per month. Similarly, the BAMS doctors who are paid close to Rs 20,000 per month in private hospitals are paid Rs 40,000 now by government hospitals and BHMS doctors are also paid almost double the remuneration.

Dr Rao added, “Young intensivists who have freshly completed their speciality course are also offered close to Rs 2.25 lakh per month which was earlier close to Rs 1.50 lakh at private hospitals.”

Along with the state government, the PMC has also hiked up its offer after it failed to get response for its previous recruitment drive and increased the offer for intensivists at par with what the state government is offering.

Dr HK Sale, executive director at Noble Hospital said, “We are also losing a lot of our staff which has joined government services. New recruits are scared to join due to the Covid situation and the existing staff is leaving as the government is offering more. With capped prices and most surgeries cancelled, we are reporting losses and now we are also losing our staff.”

Saurabh Rao, the new divisional commissioner who took over after Deepak Mhaisekar retired on Friday, said, “We are well aware of this problem and many private hospitals are raising this issue. What we are offering is as per the government norms, but the idea is not to poach on any of their staff. Most of the posts opened by the government are all on contractual basis and the requirement is too low and we have asked the private hospitals to brief their staff about this. We definitely need the help of private hospitals and their staff during this pandemic situation.”

If You Like This Story, Support NYOOOZ

NYOOOZ SUPPORTER

₹ 10 - ₹ 1000

NYOOOZ FRIEND

₹ 2000 - ₹ 5000

Your support to NYOOOZ will help us to continue create and publish news for and from smaller cities, which also need equal voice as much as citizens living in bigger cities have through mainstream media organizations.