Kathmandu, July 28

Nepal’s oldest Bir Hospital marked its 129th anniversary amidst a programme organised on its premises today.

Speaking at the programme, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health and Population Upendra Yadav instructed doctors to complete their full term in rural areas as directed by the government.

“It is a common complaint that doctors do not want to serve in the rural areas. We cannot continue with this practice, now onwards we want all the doctors to serve in the rural areas for the said period of time or the government will have to take action against such doctors,” said Yadav.

Similarly, secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population Pushpa Chaudhary also directed doctors to be available at their workplace during working hours.

Bir Hospital was established in 1889 by the then Prime Minister BirShamsher Jung Bahadur Rana. The hospital only had seven beds and five staffers.

The hospital now provides more than 80 kinds of health services, including gynaecology, paediatrics and psychiatry.

Similarly, according to a report of the hospital, it was the first hospital to introduce neurosurgery at the time when CT scan machine was not available in the country.  Bir Hospital was developed into the National Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002, which operates under the Ministry of Health and Population.

National Academy of Medical Sciences offers courses in Doctor of Medicine - Master of Science and Master of Dental Surgery. As many as 13 hospitals are affiliated to National Academy of Medical Sciences, which include Maternity Hospital, Kanti Children Hospital, Nepal Army Hospital, Patan Hospital, Shree Birendra Hospital and Nepal Eye Hospital, among others. Currently, the institute is enrolling around 100 MD, MS and MDS residential students each year.

Director of Bir Hospital Bhupendra Kumar Basnet said they were planning to go paperless in coming days. “We aspire to become centre for academic excellence and remain as a central referral hospital of the government,” he added.

He also said that they were constructing a 650-bed new building in 17 ropani land on the premises of the hospital and a 100-bed hospital building in Bhaktapur’sDuwakot in 570 ropani  land.

A report published by the hospital shows that a total of 310,106 people had sought health services from the hospital in the fiscal  2015 / 16. Similarly, 383,683 sought services in the fiscal 2016 / 17 and the number reached to 401,209 in the fiscal 2017 /18.