Even though the government provides scholarships to send doctors to villages and mobilizes contract workers to the local level, it is difficult to find doctors at a level higher than a medical officer.
What you should know
Stakeholders have said that they will not allow specialist doctors to come to Karnali Provincial Hospital. The Social Development Committee of the Karnali Provincial Assembly held a discussion on Sunday regarding the hospital's service delivery, structure and human resource management.
The provincial government and stakeholders discussed the issue in a meeting held in Surkhet's Birendranagar. The meeting was held as per the decision of the committee meeting on Kartik 22 to invite stakeholders. In the meeting, Social Development Minister Ghanshyam Bhandari said that it was difficult to find specialist doctors for the hospital.
Stating that the government has not been able to improve the facilities even if it wants to, Minister Bhandari said that there is a situation where specialist doctors are not willing to come to Karnali when assessing the geography and reality of Karnali. 'Even if the government provides scholarships to send doctors to villages and mobilizes contract workers to the local level, it is difficult to find doctors at a level higher than medical officers,' he said.
According to him, the health sector has not been given priority at the moment. Budget resources are decreasing in the days after Covid.
Hospital Management Committee Chairman Prem Bahadur Ghale admitted that there is a shortage of manpower and weaknesses in management. He said that although the provincial government has approved 150 beds, the current facility is 300 beds and although specialist services are provided by about 91 people, the budget for human resource management is not sufficient.
Provincial Hospital Director Dr. Ganesh Thapa informed that due to the shortage of specialist doctors, only 19 people are currently providing services out of the required 37. He complained that although four to five thousand KVA of electricity is required, the load of one thousand KVA capacity has not been received and electricity supply has not been able to meet the requirement.
Committee Chairman Purna Bahadur Khatri informed that the meeting discussed the status of filling posts of human resource working in the provincial hospital, efficiency, delays in service delivery, and issues of improvement.
