Hospital runs without gloves

BELGAUM: The nurses and the Class-IV staff at the Belgaum district hospital are attending on the patients without wearing hand gloves.For, they have not been provided with hand gloves for the last two months.The government, despite spending crores of rupees for the health sector, has not supplied required number of disposable rubber hand gloves. Also, the head nurses are ordered to initiate action if they find a violation of the order. However, the order is not applicable to operation theatres, which have been supplied with the necessary protective gear, including compulsory usage of autoclaved gloves.According to sources, the government has supplied less gloves as the price of the item has risen and has ordered hospitals to use them in limited quantity.The Class-IV employees have been supplied with Utility Gloves, which are being used by sanitation staff of the City Corporation and the Fire Fighter and Emergency Services department.The hospital, which has a capacity for 1000 beds, is running with a staff of 179, out of which only 150 are staff nurses, and the rest have been hired on a contract basis. The hospital has an average of 750 in-patients.The Health Ministries - both state and the union - had made use of gloves and compulsorily required the covering of the mouth and nose, with the medicated masks to avoid becoming victims of deadly diseases like HIV and TB.Staffers’ health at riskHowever, the nurses are now attending to both in and out patients without the prescribed hand gloves, putting their own lives at risk.The staff at the injection section are also working without the gloves and masks. “We’re working without gloves and masks just to maintain our oath taken before starting the profession,” said nurses, on condition of anonymity. Sources said the hospital has sufficient gloves but stopped issuing them to concerned departments in order to avoid a shortage.