Pokhara, June 10

Pokhara-based Western Regional Hospital is infested with bed bugs, causing much discomfort to patients and their attendants.

Bed bugs crawl all over the hospital beds, benches, and even hospital floors.

Sitadevi Sharma, attending to her kin, who is receiving treatment at the hospital, complained that she had not been able to sleep all night.

Dharmalal Lamichhane, who was tending to his sick father, lay on the cold floor hoping for respite from the bugs, but they did not leave him in peace there as well.

“The bugs are everywhere: beds, benches, and floors.

The attendants may be able to deal with it, but this cannot be good for the sick who need all the rest and sleep they can get,” said Lamichhane, adding, “What surprises us most is that despite frequent complaints, the hospital management has done nothing about his issue.”

Medical Superintendent Dr Shrikrishna Shrestha conceded that the problem of bedbugs exists, but spoke out his helplessness.

Dr Shrestha said, “We know that bed bugs have been a scourge at the hospital, but we have not yet found a lasting solution. We have time and again sprayed insecticides to eliminate them, but this measure has failed totally.”

He added, “Maybe spraying stronger insecticides frequently would solve this problem, but that would be very harmful for the patients.

We could of course, also throw away all hospital beds that are infested with the bugs, but our hospital does not have the budget to buy new hospital beds, which is why we are in such a fix.”