CHITWAN, JUL 01 - As most hospitals in the district lack their own building, more than 18hospitals are operational in rented commercial spaces commonly used by grocery stores and small businesses along the road from Chaubiskothi to District Police Office of Bharatpur.
Signboards bearing the names of doctors and available services have been installed in footpaths at the area while hospitals are housed along adjacent alleyways. As more people are investing in roadside ‘mini’ hospitals , patients are at risk of being stampeded in events like an earthquake. Traffic jams in the area are also a regular occurrence due to the absence of parking space in the hospitals .
“Hospital are operated in cramped buildings as most hospitals do not have a building of their own,” seismologist Harihar Poudel said. “There is a severe dearth of hospitals with adequate open space.”
During earthquakes, hospital staff, patients and their caretakers run for their lives and this may result in untoward accidents. Hospitals built in large spaces like Chitwan Medical College, College of Medical Sciences, Narayani Community Hospital and Bharatpur Hospital managed to treat people under tarpaulin tents in their premises after the earthquake, but small hospitals cannot do the same.
“We came here as there are numerous hospitals in the district but I found that people are only opening hospitals to cheat patients,” a relative of a patient who travelled from Lamjung district for treatment said. “If they were concerned about providing quality service to patients, we would not be forced to stay inside shutters in this hot weather.”
No inspection
Chitwan District Administration Office and District Public Health Office seem apathetic towards inspection of whether hospitals are following official guidelines. Although district headquarters Bharatpur has been publicised as a ‘medical city’, most hospitals here lack infrastructure to deserve that tag.
According to Private Hospitals Coordination Committee, 21 private hospitals are operational in Bharatpur but few of them are compliant with government regulation.
“Most hospital buildings have been built flouting regulations concerning beds, toilets and lifts,” secretary of the committee Pushparaj Sharma said. “Authorities that can take action against them are surprisingly silent on the matter.” Although there are four publichospitals in the city, patients opt for private ones as they face long queues in them.
“Patients face difficulties as hospitals are operated inside shutters,” district chairman of Nepal Medical Association Krishna Poudel said. “As public hospitals have not increased their capacity as per the flow of patients, the trend to rent shutters to open hospitals is increasing by the day.”
More than Rs 7 billion has been invested in private hospitals in the district, which cater to some 40 million patients from nearby eight districts.
On a normal day, about 2,200 patients benefit from OPD services from these hospitals , according to NMA chairman Poudel.
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