Bir Hospital, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) and Patan Hospital are all running well below capacity as patients face difficulty getting to hospital because of the strike.[break]
“We have been receiving just 20-25 percent of the number of patients we receive during a normal day,” says Dr Dinesh Shrestha, director of Bir Hospital, which normally treats more than 1,500 patients daily.
Similarly TUTH, which treats around 1,500 patients on a normal day, has seen a massive decline in the number of patients. “We had just around 600 patients including in emergency today,” said Head of Medical Records Department at TUTH, Kumar KC.
The evening paying clinic at the hospital has been closed due to the Maoist strike. “Our hospital bus leaves around four in the afternoon and most of the staff returns home then,” KC reasoned.
Patan Hospital that treats around 1,000 patients on an average day, has seen the number of patients drop by 50-60 percent, according to Vice-Chancellor of Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Dr Arjun Karki.
“Only patients from nearby localities come to the hospital, on foot, for lack of transport, and the ambulances are extremely busy,” Dr Karki said. He said just 10-15 percent of patients needing emergency care use the ambulance during normal days. Now the ambulances are being used even by patients who would not otherwise use them and in some cases discharged patients have to use them to reach back home. This increases the pressure on the limited number of ambulances.
Patients are not just facing problems getting to hospital; getting back home has also become an ordeal. "Patients living nearby go back walking or are carried by relatives after being discharged, but those living further away face difficulties and so are overstaying,” Dr Karki said.
Bir also has many discharged patients who are staying on for lack of transport. “A paralysis patient from Chitwan, who was to leave hospital on Saturday, left only this afternoon, while another patient left for Nuwakot by ambulance today, paying around Rs 4,000,” said a resident at Medical Department.
Likewise, a resident at Surgery Department said a patient from Sarlahi, who had abdominal surgery, left reluctantly Wednesday after overstaying for two days.
Meanwhile, hospitals are also facing shortage of oxygen due to the strike, reports our Dang correspondent Gajendra Bohara. Rapti Zonal Hospital in Tulsipur has just two cylinders of oxygen, sufficient for another day, while Rapti Sub-regional Hospital also has a stock of oxygen enough for only a couple of days. “We have to buy oxygen cylinders from Nepalgunj and have not been able to do so due to the strike,” Medical Superintendent at Rapti Zonal Dr Kedar Century said.
Similarly, the sub-regional hospital doesn´t have a vacuum set, used for extracting babies during delivery. “The set has been damaged. We have to go out of the district to buy a new one and there is no place here for repairs,” hospital staffer Bam Dev Sharma said.
The National Human Rights Commission has said that remote hill districts like Bajura, Achham, Bajhang and Darchula are facing an acute shortage of medicines and food for lack of transport due to the Maoist strike.
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