Dhangadi, March 18 Patients do not receive proper health service at Dhangadi-based Seti Zonal Hospital due to poor management of human resources and lack of infrastructure. Patients are facing problems due to unavailability of doctors, poor physical infrastructure, lack of equipment and health workers. “Patients are compelled to return home without getting treatment due to lack of beds,” said medical Superintendent Sher Bahadur Kamar. He said that more patients visit the hospital during summer season. “Around 300 patients’ names are registered on a daily basis at the hospital,” he informed. Kamar added that patients have directly been affected by poor management at the hospital. Karishma Chaudhary, a patient of Masuriya, Kailali, said she had to stand in queue for four hours for an X-ray. “Finally, I had to return home without getting the x-ray done,” she added. Not only Karishma, hundreds of other patients are compelled to return home without treatment. It is said doctors at the hospital give more time to their private clinics. Hospital staffers and health workers operate private clinics near the hospital. Patients complained that health workers compelled them to visit private clinics. Jit Raj Bhatta, a teacher who reached the hospital for his daughter’s treatment from Baitadi, said it was very difficult to receive service at the hospital. “The hospital has not even kept an inquiry desk for people visiting the hospital,” he added. “The hospital’s negligence has added to the suffering of already ailing patents,” he added. The hospital was established four decades ago. The service system, manpower and physical infrastructure are almost the same even after 40 years of its establishment. One-hundred-and-twenty-five beds are available at the hospital, but it lacks 24-hour electricity and drinking water facilities. Meanwhile, Hospital Management Committee Chair Rita Bhandari Bam admitted that the hospital could not provide quality health service. She urged all to inform her if doctors were working at private clinics during duty hours. Of the 28 doctors’ quota, only 15 doctors are available at the hospital. The doctors said they had been facing problems due to lack of technical staffers.