Medical sector reform

It is a damning indictment of our political class that an aging medical doctor has had to repeatedly put his life on the line for medical sector reform. The agendas Dr Govinda KC has been championing—a government hospital in each of the federal provinces, meritocratic appointments in the Institute of Medicine (IOM), affordable MBBS and MD fees, no new license for medical colleges before parliamentary endorsement of the medical education bill, action against Lokman Singh Karki—are all commonsense steps. Ideally, the political parties who claim to be people’s representatives should have taken up these measures that aim to bring quality and affordable healthcare to all Nepalis without any prompting. But the potent medical mafia, which Dr KC wants to dismantle, has a vice-like grip on our political class. Its members want to enrich themselves through expensive medical education and costly medical services. Such services are affordable to only a small section of the elites and as such further widen the gap between the haves and the have nots. Dr KC wants to make sure this does not happen, which is why he has just started his tenth fast-unto-death, so that he can push for the abovementioned reforms. 

Successive governments have made big promises to Dr KC—and shamelessly broken them. The new government of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, following Dr KC’s ninth hunger strike, had also vowed to swiftly act on his demands. People’s expectations were high this time as Gagan Thapa, the popular youth leader and now the health minister, had personally promised Dr KC and his supporters that they would not be disappointed. But on Sunday the government gave the clearest possible indication that it was not serious about its commitment. Dr KC had to start his tenth hunger strike on the same day after the Tribhuvan University appointed Dr Keshav Prasad Singh, someone being investigated by the CIAA on corruption charges, as the dean of the IOM. This vital institute is charged with granting affiliation to medical colleges and deciding on the number of their student seats. Not only is Dr Singh a dubious choice in terms of his personal conduct. Even on seniority basis, the job of dean should have gone to Dr Jagadish Prasad Agrawal, who, incidentally, is also considered a more honest and upright figure as compared to Dr Singh. The excuses TU vice-chancellor Thirtha Raj Khaniya has furnished for picking Dr Singh over Dr Agrawal are rather lame.   

In fact, Khaniya has been quoted in some papers as saying that Dr Agrawal was bypassed just because Dr KC had supported his bid to lead the IOM. This is a shockingly irresponsible statement on the part of someone in charge of the biggest higher education institution in the country. His loud mouth notwithstanding, Khaniya could not have made such a momentous decision on his own. Most likely, senior leaders of the ruling parties, chiefly Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Center), were in favor of the less qualified Dr Singh as he could better serve their vested interests. This is no way to run the main medical establishment of the country that is directly or indirectly responsible for the health and wellbeing of the vast majority of Nepalis. We thus call on the government to urgently review its decision on new dean and honestly implement the authoritative Mathema Commission Report on medical education reform. The dastardly game of hide and seek that is routinely played with Dr KC has long stopped amusing common folks.    

 
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