chandigarh at a time when the top authorities are looking at the pgi for covid19 beds the medical institution will itself need around 1500 doctors nurses technicians and other support staff to manage the additional infrastructurepresently most of the nurses technicians and resident doctors are engaged in the emergency and in admitted patient care at any given time not more than 300 resident doctors can be spared from the noncovid19 areas while the nurses and technicians are also deputed in the noncovid19 areasthe pgi is serving 283 covid19 patients in its 300bedded nehru extension hospital however recently ut advisor to the administrator manoj parida had written a letter to the secretary health union ministry of health and family welfare asking for expansion of services at the pgi for 500 covid19 patientsbeds and space is not a problem at the 2000bedded hospital however we cant run this extra beddedcovid19 hospital without recruiting more manpower said a faculty at the pgiaccording to the estimates 500 beds shall need 500 ot technicians 800 nursing staff and 200 doctors besides hospital and sanitation attendantsthe covid19 staff has to work on a rotational basis initially we were given a week off after the covid19 duty but now we have to join within a day or two due to staff crunch said a nursing officer at the pginot only are the nursing and paramedical staff working beyond their duty hours most of the junior and senior doctors have not taken break there are 1300 resident doctors who are posted at the emergency and trauma carefor beds with ventilators and oxygen we need trained staff for each bed so that there is round the clock supervision at times the sanitation and hospital attendants refuse to clean patients and we have to do that besides bedside care this is adding extra stress said a senior nursing staffthe pgi has total 1300 resident doctors 2400 nursing staff and 1500 ot techniciansthis manpower is engaged in wards emergency area dialysis unit gynecology ward and chemotherapy centre pgi needs more manpower for covid19 care ie 200 doctors 800 nursing staff and 500 ot technicians