Kathmandu, May 29:

Unclaimed patients brought to the emergency ward of Bir Hospital are creating problems by occupying space of the needy patients, hospital administration said.

Ishwari Devi Shrestha, deputy-nursing chief of the hospital, said: “Every day some three persons in critical conditions are dumped in the emergency ward of the hospital. When it is time for them to be shifted to other wards, it becomes a problem because officials in other wards do not want to take charge of people with no one to look after.

We have to make adjustments for them in the emergency, medical or surgical observation ward rooms, where the flow of patients is very high.”

“There are 22 beds in the emergency ward and 22 beds in the observation ward and the current capacity is not enough,” she said. “It takes months for us to find an appropriate

place in the hospital for such unclaimed patients,” Shrestha said.

Shrestha said that the hospital is lobbying with other organisations to manage space for such patients, but it would take more time.