TIKAPUR, July 19: The locals living in eastern parts of Kailali and western parts of Bardiya have been dependent on Tikapur Hospital for treatment since years. But the hospital which is benefiting the people of both the districts is itself in a miserable state.
Ratan Bahadur Khadka, chairperson of the Hospital Development Committee (HDC), shed light about the sorry state of the hospital during a press conference organized on Monday. By issuing a press statement, he listed 15 major problems faced by the hospital. Out of all the problems, the hospital's inability of providing emergency service due to lack of manpower is the major problem. He stressed on the need of adding more doctors and other staffers at the hospital.
According to him, the hospital needs a child pediatric doctor, a gynecologist and an orthopedic doctor. "It is not possible to operate emergency service with the income of the hospital," said Chairperson Khadka.
Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital ailing
The Korean International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) had built a building for the emergency service long ago. There are enough modern medical tools and equipment in the hospital. But still the hospital has not been able to bring the service into operation.
"We could have been able to stop 80 % of the patients from going out of the district had we been able to provide emergency service here," said Dr Narendra Kumar Khanal. This could also help to increase the income of the hospital.
Similarly, the hospital lacks specialist doctors. There is the sanctioned position for 11 doctors but Dr Khanal is the only specialist at the hospital. Apart from him, there are six medical officers and a dentist at the hospital. It's been months that the hospital has not been able to pay the electricity bill. As informed by Chairperson Khadka, the hospital has an outstanding electricity bill of Rs 3.8 million.
Likewise, there are so many other problems related to the accommodation of doctors, medicine purchase, postmortem hall, pharmacy among others. Chairperson Khadka laments that he could not solve these problems despite making efforts in the last one and a half years since his appointment.
"We won't be able to do it alone if the government shows no concern," said Khadka.
Reportedly, around 56,000 patients come for treatment at the hospital in a year. Around 12,000 of them seek emergency service. This hospital, which was established as a health post in the year 1977, has 13 bigha land. This land was gifted by the then Tikapur Development Committee. In the year 2015, this hospital was upgraded to the District Hospital by the government.
