Kathmandu, April 10:

The Out Patient Department (OPD) in only a few hospitals remained closed for an hour to press the government to expedite search for an abducted doctor.

Many hospitals in the Kathmandu valley, however, did not stage the closure, announced by the Nepal Medical Association (NMA), due to ignorance about the programme.

An official at the Manmohan Hospital said they would have closed the OPD service had they received the information about the closure earlier.

The OPD of some hospitals including the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) and the Patan hospital remained open today.

“We did not receive the circular from NMA,” said the administrator.

The NMA had called for the closure of OPD for an hour in the first hour today demanding the security of the doctors and expediting the search for Dr Murali Prasad Singh, medical superintendent of Siraha District Hospital, who was kidnapped a few days earlier.

NMA vice-president Dr Kiran Kumar Shrestha, however, said the closure announcement was made late in the evening but denied the fact that very few hospitals closed the OPD services.

“We know that the government is very serious about finding Dr Singh but still we want to pressurise the government to expedite the process because criminal groups are involved in the abduction,” said Dr Shrestha.

Dr Singh was abducted in April 8 near his residence at Rajbiraj.

Meanwhile, the NMA central committee meeting held today appealed all the hospitals to close the OPD for two hours in the early hours tomorrow.

“The next phase of programme will be announced tomorrow,” said Dr Shrestha.