Despite repeated appeals for the creation of new posts in government hospitals, Tamil Nadu continues to depend on redeployment of healthcare staff to address manpower gaps. In the latest move, the State government has given the nod to redeploy 210 posts of staff nurses from seven new medical college hospitals to four major institutions that are in need of manpower.Accordingly, 40 posts each from the Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH), Namakkal and GMCH, Tiruvallur, 20 each from GMCH, Krishnagiri and GMCH, Tiruppur, 30 each from GMCH, The Nilgiris, GMCH, Ariyalur and GMCH, Kallakurichi are being redeployed to four “needy medical institutions” - Government Stanley Medical College Hospital (SMCH), Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital, Salem, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital, Tiruchi, and Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital, an order said.Of the 210 posts, the largest share of 70 goes to SMCH, while 50 posts each are being redeployed to Tiruchi and Chengalpattu, and 40 to Salem.The proposal for redeployment was sent by working out the details of the total staff nurse posts and bed strength-staff nurse ratio, before and after the proposed redeployment in the seven new medical college hospitals and four institutions under the control of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research.The directorate justified the redeployment by outlining the critical role played by nurses in patient care. It also said that the 210 posts proposed for redeployment were not being diverted, redeployed to any other unit or surrendered for the creation of any other posts.This move has drawn criticism from a nurses’ association, which has been repeatedly demanding the creation of new nursing posts as per the patient load. There is an acute shortage of nurses in government hospitals, primary health centres, and government medical college hospitals.N. Subin, general secretary of The Tamil Nadu Nurses Empowerment Association, in a statement, condemned the move to redeploy 210 posts of staff nurses. Earlier this month, the association had objected to a move to redeploy 292 nursing posts from the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and government hospitals.Creating new nursing posts is the appropriate solution to address staff shortages. Instead, redeploying existing posts from one hospital to another would affect the health services provided by these hospitals and the workload on nurses will increase.This decision could affect nurses who are waiting for permanent employment. This has caused distress and disappointment among nurses. Despite repeatedly raising demands and submitting several appeals, the government continues to ignore the demands of nurses. The association said they would be forced to resort to continuous protests.The newly elected Tamil Nadu government should immediately intervene, abandon the move to reduce staff through redeployment and cancel the government order immediately, it said. Published - July 28, 2026 09:45 pm IST