Radha BK, a resident of Surnaya rural municipal­ity in the far-western dis­trict of Baitadi, gave birth to a baby at home. Although there is a community health cen­ter in the vicinity, Radha had to face the risk of delivering at home because there were no officials at the health cen­ter when she went into labor. There were health workers in the health posts in the market area, but it was impossible to get there with labor pains in the middle of the night.

The ward office had invested Rs 500,000 to build a com­munity health center target­ing the residents of nearby areas. “Although the health center building has been constructed, we are unable to provide services because we don’t have staff,” says Bir Bahadur Bohora, who is in charge of the center.

Even the hospital in the dis­trict headquarters has been operating without nurses for the past two and half months. The staff nurses employed by the hospital are either on study leave or have been transferred elsewhere.

Dr Jagdish Chandra Bista, Medical Superintendent at the District Hospital Baitadi, says staff nurses are a must for providing good maternity services. The hospital doesn’t have a single nurse at present even though it has positions for six.

Similarly, in the sub-re­gional hospital of Dadeld­hura, there are no doctors or medical supervisors. The posts of 19 doctors and a medical supervisor at this hospital are vacant. And of the hospital’s 20 positions—for one lab technician, one physio assistant and 18 staff nurses—12 remain vacant, says Dr Guna Raj Awas­thi, head of the far western regional health directorate.

The condition of the Mahakali Zonal Hospital is even worse. All positions of 15 medical specialists and 6 medical officers are unfilled. The Seti Zonal Hospital has also been unable to fill the positions of 13 doctors, a lab technologist and two nurses. Tikapur Hospital has a similar story as it is not able to fill the positions of 13 doctors, a pharmacy inspector and an office assistant.

The far-west health director­ate informs that government hospitals in several other districts of the region have vacant positions.

 The letter sent by the federal government authorizing hiring of doctors has gone missing

 

Ministry letter lost

In a crisis like this where there are no doctors and nurses at the zonal and dis­trict hospitals, the letter sent by the federal government to the provincial government authorizing it to hire contract doctors has gone missing. This letter was sent on Dec 18, 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Population to the chief min­isters and the offices of the council of provincial ministers of all seven provinces.

However, the chief minister and the office of the coun­cil of provincial ministers of the Far-western province claim that they received no such letter. “We have seen neither a hard copy nor a soft copy of such a letter,” says Narayan Bidari, Chief Secre­tary of the province.