JANAKPURDHAM, JULY 10

The newly established Madhes Institute of Health Sciences, Janakpurdham, plans to provide all kinds of care to people of the region.

Vice-chancellor of MIHS Dr Ram Kewal Shah told THT he was preparing to transform the 300- bed Provincial Hospital under the MIHS into a 500-bed wellequipped medical hospital where people could get all types of treatment without needing to go to Kathmandu or other big cities of the Indian states of Bihar and UP.

In order to realise this plan, the MIHS has urged the provincial government to provide 20 bigha land where it can shift the hospital and establish the required facilities.

We need larger area because this place will prove to be far from enough when we increase our departments and services,' Dr Shah said.

At present, people are not getting all the major services mainly because there is shortage of equipment and human resources.

'Doctors and health professionals from Janakpurdham, who work in Kathmandu, do not want to work in this hospital because they say they won't have opportunity to use all the skills they have learnt so far,' Dr Shah said.

The MIHS plans to consult all stakeholders, including former members of the hospital's management teams, and doctors and service seekers, to know how the Provincial Hospital could better its service delivery. The academy also plans to form a technical committee to recommend suggestions for the Provincial Hospital.

'After the technical committee makes recommendations, we will take steps to enhance the quality of our care and increase the number of health professionals, provide training to them and also add equipment,' Dr Shah added.

He said medical professionals of the hospital needed advanced level of training to provide modern care to patients. The MIHS has a vision of making strong linkages between the Janakpurdham-based Provincial Hospital and district hospitals of Province 2.

Dr Shah said that he was also thinking of sending doctors from the Provincial Hospital to district hospitals in the province if that could be feasible and beneficial.

The MISH has got approval to run BSc Nursing, BN Nursing course, BPH and BMLT course from the new academic year.

Dr Shah said his office wanted to run MD/MS course so that doctors could attain higher education in their own locality. MIHS also plans to establish facility for MBBS, BDS, BSc/BN Nursing and others. For needs assessment, MIHS plans to conduct a health survey in Province 2 to assess the disease burden and long/short policy/programme planning.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 11 2021, of The Himalayan Times.