Rajbiraj, November 15

Rajbiraj-based Gajendranarayan Singh Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital has turned into a referral centre as the health facility can barely provide medical services for want of doctors.

Posts of over a dozen experts have been lying vacant at the hospital for long. Though the hospital has a quota for 19 specialists, including a medical superintendent, only one of them is currently serving at the hospital.

“More than 150 patients visit the hospital every day but, as there is only one specialist, service delivery has been severely affected,” said Acting Medical Superintendent at the hospital Dilip Kumar Sah, adding that the hospital doesn’t have a single physician.

“Two posts each for gynaecologist and paediatrician are lying vacant.

Similarly, posts for a pathologist, anaesthetician, consultant surgeon, orthopaedic surgeon and psychiatrist, among others, are also lying vacant,” he said.

At a time when the zonal hospital is facing crunch of medical experts, the few medical professionals appointed there are also said to be more inclined towards private clinics.

Ram Lagan Sada of Ramnagar was obliged to visit an expensive private clinic after he couldn’t receive treatment at the zonal hospital. “I did not get medical help even after waiting in line for two days at the hospital. I had no option but to borrow money and visit a private clinic,” said Sada.

Interestingly, Sada was treated by the same doctor at the private clinic, who didn’t have time to serve him at the zonal hospital.

Like Sada, many villagers with feeble economic background are forced to spend more at private clinics due to the unavailability of medical staffers and doctors’ insincerity at the zonal hospital.

On his part, Sah conceded that the hospital had failed to cater to all the patients, but attributed it to the lack of manpower and necessary equipment.

“We’ve not been able to cater to all the patients who visit the hospital, but we’re doing our best to do whatever we can with the available resources,” he said, adding that patients are referred to better facilities in Biratnagar, Dharan and Kathmandu only if they cannot be treated at the zonal hospital.

He also denied allegations that doctors at the hospital have been giving their time to private clinics during office hours.