KATHMANDU, Jan 27: Minister of State for Health and Population, Dr Toshima Karki has issued a clarification after she was criticized for making a video of her visit to the Kirtipur-based burn hospital on Wednesday and for entering the burn ward of the hospital without wearing gloves and without taking permission to meet Prem Prasad Acharya who committed self-immolation in front of the parliament building in New Baneshwor on Tuesday afternoon. 

Through her official Facebook page, she has clarified that it was not her who made the video. She also said that the focus should be on finding answers to the questions raised by Prem Acharya, rather than on who touched him without wearing gloves or who shot the video.

She has written on her Facebook wall, “Only I and my personal secretary had rushed to the hospital soon after learning about the news. When we reached the hospital gate, the people present there said “oh! The Minister of State has come” and took us to the ICU on the upper floor. The doctor on duty had come to take me to the door of the ICU. Today everyone has a mobile in their hands and we didn’t even know about the people who were allowed to enter the ICU; we didn’t know who were the caretaker of the patient and who were from the media. We also don’t know who shot the video, how and why. If media attention was what I wanted and had gone there for, I would have removed my facemask like others present there.” She also asked not to politicize the death of the person who has lost his life.

Regarding the allegation that she did not follow the ICU protocol, Dr Karki said that she had followed the ICU protocol. "The patient was burnt to death, but as a surgeon myself, I did not need any major procedure to visit the ICU."

She also asked everyone not to politicize the death of a person who is no more in this world.

 
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