The warning was issued after a delegation of hospital directors told the ministry that they are not in a position to run hospitals any more. The delegation comprised of directors of major public hospitals of the capital and from outside the valley. They complained that their hospitals lacked essential drugs as well as fuel to run ambulances and hospital generators and other drugs to sterilize medical accessories."The delegation of doctors told us that they are not in a position to run hospitals any longer," Mahendra Bahadur Shrestha, chief of Planning Division at the MoHP, said. The delegation had also met with Minister for Health and Population Ram Janam Chaudhary to draw his attention about the burning problems the hospitals have been facing.
With temperature sliding further down, the number of patients suffering from cold-related ailments like asthma and pneumonia has gone up in hospitals, which have been plagued by power outage. Each hospital needs 60 liters of diesel to run generator but the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has been not been able to deliver fuel as per the demand.
"Directors of various hospitals complained that they are tired of running to various government agencies for recommendations for fuel," added Shrestha. They have expressed worries of spreading deadly diseases in the wards as they lacked drugs to sterilized medical accessories.
According to Shrestha, the MoHP has taken the complaints of hospital directors seriously. He said that health minister Chaudhary and secretary at the MoHP Shanta Bahadur Shrestha are serious about the problems the hospitals have been facing. Secretary Shrestha had met with Chief Secretary Som Lal Subedi on Monday asking him to give first priority to the health sector.
"We know that students have been deprived of education for over three months, development works have been halted, people have been deprived of essential goods and inflation has soared," said Shrestha, adding that people might compromise on those things but cannot compromise on health issue.
Meanwhile, Secretary Shrestha said that he has called a meeting of representatives of the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), representatives of the NOC and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) on Tuesday to discuss about the ways to sort out the problems that the hospital have been encountering for over two and half months.
"We are very serious toward the problems the hospitals have been facing and are trying our best to resolve them at the earliest," said Secretary Shrestha. He hoped that the concerned government agencies will give priority to ease the woes faced by the hospitals as the chief secretary has also directed them put the issue on top priority.
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