Kathmandu, March 26

With a view to avoiding overcrowding, Bir Hospital has come up with a new service whereby service seekers can consult doctors over phone for 24 different types of services.

As per the new provision, the hospital has provided a mobile phone number to each of the 24 departments at the hospital. A consultant physician on-duty at concerned department will respond to queries of service seekers through phone call, according to Surendra Bhusal of the hospital’s department of anaesthesiology. “The new service is aimed at avoiding crowd at hospitals and solving people’s minor health issues through phone consulting. This prevents people from contracting COV- ID-19 infection,” said Bhusal, adding, “To put it precisely, this has to do with breaking chain of the virus transmission.”

Bhusal said if consultants think that particular patients need hospital care they will be called to the hospital. A post on social media by Minister of Health and Population Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal states that the service is available for both new and old patients of the hospital.

Twenty-four departments of the hospital offering consultation service through phone are Anaesthesiology, Skin, Emergency, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Pathology, Radiodiagnosis, Clinical Oncology, Dental, ENT and HNS, Neurosurgery, Plastic and Burn Surgery, Thorasic Vascular Surgery, Urology, Surgical Gastroenternology, Gastroenternology Medicine, Cardiology, Nephorology, Neurology, Hepatology, Medical Oncology, Nursing Inpatient Service and Nursing Outpatient Department.