The Shahid Dasharath Chand University of Health Sciences in Geta, Kailali is set to start MBBS teaching from the upcoming academic session. The university assembly meeting held on Wednesday passed six regulations related to the operation of medical education, including MBBS. 

After the university assembly meeting, Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Youth and Sports, Sasmit Pokharel said that preparations have been made to start teaching medical education from the upcoming academic session. He also said that the government has prioritized university operation and medical studies. ‘The Prime Minister has also directed that there should be no financial shortfalls. The Finance Ministry is also positive,’ said Minister Pokharel, ‘Education and health are the top priority areas of the current government.’

Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah, who is also a member of the university assembly, said that a decision has already been made to operate medical education and upgrade Geta Hospital to 300 beds, and Wednesday’s meeting further clarified the necessary procedures for that. Similarly, the university’s Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Sunil Kumar Joshi informed that applications have been submitted to the Medical Education Commission for 50 MBBS, 30 BSc Nursing, 20 Medical Lab Technology and 20 BSc Optometry study and teaching seats. 

This is the first time that the University Assembly has been held in Geta. The previous three meetings were held in Kathmandu. The chair of the assembly is the Minister of Education, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the university. Similarly, the Minister of Health, who is also the Vice-Chancellor, is a member of the assembly. The act also provides that the Chief Minister of the Far West Province, the Chairman of the University Grants Commission, the Vice-Chancellor of the Medical Education Commission, the Vice-Chancellor and the Mayor of Godavari Municipality will also be members of the university assembly. Kailali-5 MP Ananda Bahadur Chand said that if a teaching hospital is established here, the obligation to travel to India for treatment from this region will be removed. ‘Still, studying medical education in the Far West, which did not have a teaching hospital, was a dream. Now we have reached the time when it will come true,’ he said.

Vice Chancellor Joshi said that for that, it has been decided to upgrade the 50-bed hospital operating within the university to 300 beds. The university administration has stated that it has demanded a budget of Rs 2.58 billion for the operation of the hospital and educational programs in the coming fiscal year. Joshi said that the proposal has reached the Ministry of Finance via the Prime Minister's Office. He said that the three areas of the university are medicine, education and research and informed that satellite health centers will be operated in the coming year.

The university has stated that it has already called for applications on 26 February to appoint 26 professors and 51 associate professors on contract service for academic manpower. It has stated that the process of filling up the posts of human resources in subjects such as physiology, pathology, ENT, general surgery, anesthesiology, internal medicine, ophthalmology, medical education, pharmacology and others has begun. The university has stated that it has received a budget of Rs 50 million for the remuneration of doctors for the current fiscal year 2082/83, including Jestha and Asar.

OPD service was started at Geta Hospital on 1 Kartik 2080. The government formed a Medical College Promotion Committee in 2067. Later, in 2072, the 'Medical College Infrastructure Development Committee' was formed under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to take forward the infrastructure work. Although state-of-the-art buildings were built in Geta to build a medical college, the buildings remained idle for a long time due to confusion over the operational structure. 

Although it was initially said that a medical college should be operated, later there was a demand to operate it within the structure of the institution. But later, a demand was made to establish a medical university. A movement was started for that. Building on the foundation of that movement, on 29 Magh 2079, the Council of Ministers decided to operate the Shaheed Dasharath Chand Health Sciences University.