Lumbini Provincial Hospital, Butwal has added MRI service. The service was added from Friday on the occasion of the 116th foundation day of the hospital.

The service was brought into operation after the MRI machine was installed with a budget of about 120 million rupees provided by the Lumbini Provincial Government. The machine was installed about 2 months ago. The service was started from Friday after completing the subsequent management work, said the hospital's Medical Superintendent Dr. Indra Dhakal.

'Keeping in mind the increasing pressure of service recipients and public expectations, we have added the service by making maximum use of limited resources and means,' he said. 'The campaign to make the hospital a specialized service-providing hospital is ongoing.'

He said that efforts are also being made to make the service quality and reliability along with the service delivery. With the installation of the MRI machine, service recipients now have the opportunity to receive services in a cheap and convenient manner. The hospital has stated that the compulsion to go to Gorakhpur or Kathmandu has ended.

The number of patients receiving OPD services at Lumbini Provincial Hospital is more than 1,500 daily. More than 1,000 patients are admitted and treated. However, there is always a shortage of beds for patients admitted to the hospital.

In the last 1 year, the hospital has expanded its physical infrastructure by installing 4 state-of-the-art operating rooms in the maternity and pediatric building, operating a well-equipped operation theater with a 14-bed post-operative and 8-bed recovery ward, and upgrading the 45-bed medical ward to a 90-bed physical structure in view of the pressure of patients in the emergency room.

For the convenience of patients, an online ticket system has been launched, a separate digital payment counter with dynamic digital payment facility at billing counters, an end to the obligation to stand in line for laboratory test reports, a state-of-the-art system that allows reports to be sent to the patient's mobile via SMS and the patient to print the report himself from the automatic dispatch machine, said Medical Superintendent Dhakal.

To manage the crowding in the hospital, services have been provided through 35 ticket counters, paying special attention to health insurance patients. Simultaneous ticketing and billing facilities from 10 counters, MRI facilities, complex vascular surgery through a state-of-the-art neuro microscope and reconstruction of joint nerves and joint transplantation services using an arthroscopy machine, services have been resumed by resuming the urinary system and gallbladder surgery performed through laparoscopic method, which were closed due to lack of necessary equipment, and the service has been made more effective by installing a thallium laser machine for modern treatment of stones in the urinary system.

The hospital has installed TMT, Halter Monitoring, ABPM in the Cardiology Department and Audiometry in the ENT Department, and has launched a mammography service and a separate breast clinic for early detection of breast cancer, said Prem Bahadur Gautam, the hospital's administrative chief.

The hospital has also installed a state-of-the-art 500 mA digital X-ray machine in radiology and endoscopy, and has established a separate blood bank in the emergency block to prevent blood shortages in emergencies.