The post of surgeon has been lying vacant at the hospital since Dr Satya Dev Giri retired as medical superintendent five years ago. He was the only surgeon at the hospital. [break]
The lack of surgeon as well as other doctors, nurses and health workers has reduced the Rajbiraj-based hospital, which caters to the people of six districts in Sagarmatha zone, to merely a referral center.
"We don´t have adequate human resources," says Dr Tek Narayan Mandal, acting medical superintendent of the hospital. "We´re forced to refer complicated cases to other hospitals in Dharan, Biratanagar and Kathmandu."
Caesarean is the only major surgery that the hospital is currently able to conduct. However, owing to the lack of medical staff, the rate of failure in caesarean is also very high.
In the last fiscal year, the hospital provided caesarean service to 419 women. However, during or after the surgery, two mothers and 118 newborns lost their lives.
"The lack of medical staff, necessary equipment and medicines is the only reason behind such a high maternal and newborn mortality rate," explains Dr Mandal.
The severity of human resource crunch can be gauged from the fact that the hospital has now only three doctors, including Dr Mandal, despite having as many as 19 allotted posts of doctors.
Until recently, six doctors were available at the hospital. After Dr Shailesh Jha went to Kathmandu to attend a long training program and Dr Laxman Mandal and Dr Ranjit Jha joined other hospitals, just three doctors have been forced to shoulder the responsibilities.
The hospital also lacks nurses. Despite having 18 posts of nurses, the hospital currently has only 10 nurses. Eight other posts have been lying vacant for a long time.
The hospital, the main building of which was built 40 years ago, has only 50 beds. A new building of the hospital, which has 50 more beds, was inaugurated by Health Minister Rajendra Mahato two months ago.
But, the new hospital building is still unused due to the lack of heath staff. "It is pointless to extend our service to the new building without first fulfilling the vacant posts of doctors, nurses and other medical staff," Dr Mandal said.
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