‘Nursing Schools Should Provide Nurses for Wenlock Hospital’

Health and Family Welfare Minister UT Khader inspects Wenlock District Hospital in Mangaluru on Saturday. | Photo credit: HS MANJUNATH

Health and Family Welfare Minister UT Khader said the 19 private colleges that use Wenlock District Hospital for clinical practice will be asked to provide nurses to help fill the shortage at the hospital.

Hospital Aarogya Raksha Samiti members Padmanabha and Khaleem Gerukatte pointed out that shortage of nursing staff is affecting health services at the hospital. When Mr Gerukatte said Kasturba Medical College (KMC) had not provided the number of nurses it had promised, the KMC representative said it had provided 150 nurses and that they were working in tandem with the nursing staff of Wenlock Hospital.

Hospital Superintendent DS Shivaprakash said 95 nurses from the hospital worked in tandem with 150 KMC nurses who were also deployed. According to him, the hospital needs at least 100 more nurses. Dr. Shivaprakash said the nurses were leaving the hospital after working there for about two years for better prospects. Deputy Commissioner HV Darshan said that the appointed nurses should be made to sign a contract to work in the hospital for three years henceforth.

To deal with the shortage of nurses, the minister asked Dr. Shivaprakash to prepare a policy whereby private nursing colleges would provide one nurse in proportion to the number of students doing clinical practice at Wenlock Hospital. Nursing colleges should bear this nurse’s salary. A similar formula should be worked out so that private colleges of physiotherapy whose students are sent for clinical practice in the hospital to deploy physiotherapists in the hospital. “These private institutions should come forward to provide cost-effective health services at the hospital where the needy patients from different parts of the state and Kerala are accommodated,” the minister said.

Ivan D’Souza, MLC, said that the services of nursing students should be utilized in the hospital for making beds and other common nursing needs.

The minister said that amendments have been proposed in the Karnataka State Civil Services (Transfer of Doctors and Other Employees) Act to avoid hardship caused to government doctors and medical staff due to transfers and consequent disruption of health services at these centres. “We will continue with ongoing guidance and transfer. Changes will be implemented after the ongoing processes are completed,” Mr Khader said.

With malaria and dengue cases on the rise due to intermittent rain in Dakshina Kannada, the minister asked people not to ignore fever and seek medical treatment as soon as possible.

He directed Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner Ravichandra Nayak to cancel business licenses of business establishments that allow breeding of malaria and dengue-carrying mosquitoes in their area.

Published – 18 Jul 2026 22:08 IST