Kudos to doctors

Doctors in Nepal have been making headlines for reasons that are undesirable. The valuable service they provide, like every good thing in life, should have been felt through their deed but sadly they are being heard by way of their protests and strikes. From stopping services at the outpatient department of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) to stopping all services in hospitals across the country, they have willfully revealed a possibly inhumane side leaving nothing to imagination. Selfish demands like creation of MBBS quotas for their children and an exemption of duty on import of vehicles have indeed tarnished their reputation.



But all is not wrong with Nepali doctors as there are also a few who have been quietly doing their duty to maintain people’s respect toward the noble profession. Dr Shankar Man Rai is a case in point. He has transformed lives of over 13,000 poor Nepali children born with cleft lips, cleft palates and suffering from burn injuries with free plastic surgery. Similarly, Dr Arun Budha who drew inspiration from the fact that he was born and brought up in a community of leprosy patients in an asylum provided by Dadeldhura´s Team Hospital has devoted his entire life to provide medical services to people living in rural hinterlands. Meanwhile, Dr Chakra Raj Pandey has offered to refund fees to families of patients who die during treatment and charges nothing for a second operation. Likewise Dr Lekhraj Subedi has been providing free medical treatment in rural villages of Pyuthan after quitting his comfortable job as an assistant professor at TUTH. Dr Sanduk Ruit, an internationally well-known eye specialist, has been providing world class eye care at a very cheap rate through Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology. Dr Bhagawan Koirala, on his part, has made high quality heart care affordable to the poor through Shahid Gangalal National Heart Center.



And now Dr Basanta Panta is in news after the successful completion of a complicated brain tumor surgery in which he and his team of doctors used an advanced technique to ensure that the patient does not lose his vital functions. He has also been undertaking functional surgeries, which are not usually done by doctors for fear of patients losing life while treating a non-life-threatening ailment, to reduce sufferings of many patients.



We have been vocal in our stand against wrong practices and have used this space to chide the medical practitioners for their wrongdoings in the past. But contributions of doctors deserve unconditional praise. We wholeheartedly salute the spirit of those who have been selflessly serving their patients all the while being away from the limelight. We also urge other doctors to emulate the glorious examples of their benevolent contemporaries to alleviate the sufferings of poor patients.

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