The indefinite strike has already affected the access of patients to the hospital and the noise outside has compounded matters for the few receiving treatment there. Thousands of Maoists protest everyday just in front of the country´s oldest and largest hospital blissfully ignoring the plight of patients suffering just a few meters away.[break]
“I had heard that even vehicles should not be allowed to honk horns but here they are creating chaos in front of the hospital,” an elderly attending his wife at the surgical observation ward of the hospital rued. “They say they are doing all this for the people. But I wonder…,” the man from Dhadingbesi said.
Patients at Bir Hospital have always borne the brunt of noise from the open air theater just across the road which hosts political programs regularly. But this time around, the Maoists are revelling daily in front of the hospital since May 1.
Hospital Director Dr Dinesh Shrestha said the protest noise has affected patients but expressed helplessness to do anything. “We have requested the political parties even in the past to at least not turn the loudspeakers at the open air theater toward the hospital but nobody listens. We have even complained to the Home Ministry in the past but to no avail,” he added.
He said the hospital has, however, not complained to the Maoists specifically about the ongoing protest. “You know the situation. Who can dare tell them not to stage protests there?” he summed up the scenario.
Home Ministry Spokesperson Jaya Mukunda Khanal said the ministry has not received any complaints from the hospital in the last 10 months. “The ´great´ leaders of political parties should think about the plight of the patients while delivering speeches and organizing protests in front of the hospital. Home Ministry cannot go there and snatch microphones from them,” Khanal said when asked why the ministry is not doing anything to stop it.
Secretariat Member of the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal Health Workers´ Association Dr Gyanendra Shah, who also works at Bir and is currently the health chief of the Sundhara Arc during the ongoing Maoist protest, expressed sadness at the scenario but stopped well short of making commitment to stop it.
“It´s an irony that the open air theater is just in front of the hospital. The hospital management has been trying to control noise around the hospital for a long time now,” Dr Shah said. “Who can stop all this at a time when there is no system in the country?” he argued.
Though he conceded that the patients are facing difficulty due to the protest he labelled all those raising the issue now as ´politically motivated´.
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