Treatment of up to three people on the same bed
KATHMANDU, Aug 6: Due to the lack of beds in Kanti Children's Hospital, the patients are not receiving quality healthcare services. Kanti Children's Hospital, which is serving as a referral hospital for children, has been treating kidney diseases, child cancers, and child mental illnesses. Similarly, endoscopy services for children, OPD services for heart diseases are being conducted.
Now there are many patients with colds, pneumonia, fever and some diarrhea. The director of the hospital, Yuba Nidhi Basaula, said that the treatment processes were hampered due to the lack of sufficient beds. He said that there is an obligation to treat about two to three patients on the same bed. Currently, the hospital has 330 beds. He also informed Republica that there is a shortage of nursing manpower. Basaula mentioned that 200,000 children received healthcare services in the last fiscal year and added that now about 900 patients visit the hospital for treatment every day.
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Basaula said that one nurse in the hospital has to serve six to eight patients. He said that sometimes two nurses have to look after the entire ward and added that at least 500 nurses are required to provide quality health services. Currently, 200 nurses are working at the hospital.
Basaula said, “Looking at the number of patients, it seems that patients visit hospitals in the same ratio during the summer season. The crowd of patients visiting the hospital is recorded in the months of July and August. On a daily basis, the number of people who seek the health services in the Outpatient Department (OPD) is around 800 to 900, while 150 to 200 patients come to the emergency department. Our current 330 beds are not enough. For that reason, about two to three patients are being treated on the same bed. There are up to three to four children in the observation ward in 24 hours. There are 25 beds in the observation ward and 25 beds in the emergency department. The situation is such that the patients have to share beds for treatment. Even on the available 25 beds, about 50 to 60 children are being provided treatment. Looking at the records of the OPD, pharmacy, lab etc, there is a maximum arrival of patients for the past few days.
The hospital has been conducting OPD services for kidney disease treatment, child cancer, child mental disease treatment, endoscopy, and heart diseases. He informed Republica that about 20 to 30 surgeries are conducted every day. A 52-bed ICU is operational at Kanti Children's Hospital.
Stating that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been completed to build a hospital of 1,000 beds capacity, Basaula said that there is a plan to build five buildings at a cost of Rs 9.3 billion. He said that apart from emergencies, one has to wait from six months to one year for surgery.
He said, “We have conducted Operations and Maintenance (O&M) for a requirement of 550 beds and have sent it to the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Health. If it is approved, the number of beds in the hospital will increase and the manpower will also increase and it would be easier to provide services.”
He said that Kanti Children’s Hospital is a hospital that receives referrals from all 77 districts of Nepal and referrals from all seven provinces. Because referrals for children's surgeries come from all over Nepal, leading to delays in conducting the surgeries on time.
He said, “Although Kanti Children's Hospital was established 61 years ago, the hospital lacks Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) services. He said that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is going to provide an MRI machine soon.”
