Steps To Counter Shortage Of Nurses By Goa Govt

Goa Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that Goa government has decided to increase seats for nursing courses in state-run institutions to deal with the acute shortage of nurses

"There are 5-6 doctors passing out every year against one nurse. The ratio needs to be reversed," Parsekar said.

However, every year 150 MBBS students pass out from Goa Medical College and 40 from BDS (Bachelor of Dental Science), in addition, 100 more students pass out from Homoeopathic and Ayurvedic colleges. But in case of nurses, the number reduces to 50 only.

Parsekar said, GMC also has a batch of 100 post graduates, taking the total number of doctors to 400 annually.

"But in case of nursing, we have only 50 nurses passing out from state-run Institute of Nursing Education (INE), situated at Bambolim near here," he said.

The minister talked about the solution as the state government has got approval from concerned authorities to increase the number of nursing seats from 50 to 100 from the coming academic year. Moreover, a process is already on to get 20 students admitted in MSC nursing.

The state government will also start a nursing college in Margao town with 100 seats, which will ensure that annually 200 nurses pass out from the state, he added.

Also, he claimed that government posts of nurses which were left vacant during the earlier Congress-led government were filled when Manohar Parrikar government was formed in 2012