Bhaktapur, April 24

Director General of the Department of Health Services Dr Rajendra Panta said the country needed more research in the health sector along with increased medical, academic and training centres.

Speaking on the occasion of the 5th Anniversary of Human Organ Transplant Centre, Bhaktapur today, Dr Panta said more hospitals should be made academic and research centres so as to train other medical practitioners.

He said, “The country should have its own medical research and academic centres in order to develop the medical sector whereas health care should be made affordable for the general public.”

Also speaking on the occasion, Executive Director of Human Organ Transplant Centre, Bhaktapur Dr Pukar Chandra Shrestha said, “The centre has been extending various health care facilities, including liver transplant and heart surgery over the years. With the beginning of the Nepali new year, the centre also launched free kidney transplant service.”

Shrestha added that the centre was planning to execute more than 150 kidney transplants, begin Angioplasty, Angiogram, as well as regular open heart surgery along with other transplants within this year.

The HOTC has provided free dialysis to as many as 22,985 patients while 5,488 patients paid for the service. In the same way, the centre has carried out 116 transplant surgeries as well as 1,465 OT in the year 2016.