• New patients are compelled to wait for a long time to be admitted to ICU in hospitals

Kathmandu, October 3

Lack of adequate number of beds in Intensive Care Units in public hospitals has been causing inconvenience to patients.

Netra Gurung, 50, of Sindhupalchowk was rushed and admitted to the emergency ward of the TU Teaching Hospital after he fainted and did not regain his consciousness for long. Doctors in the emergency ward informed that he had to be transferred to ICU for further treatment. However, due to lack of beds in ICU ward, he couldn’t be admitted.

Netra’s nephew Anjan Gurung, 22, said doctors had referred the patient to another hospital to admit him in ICU ward. He said, “One of the doctors suggested to us to take the patient to Kathmandu Model Hospital.”

Chief Administrator of TU Teaching Hospital Govinda Bahadur Pradhan said there were many patients waiting to be admitted to ICU. “There are only 11 beds in the ICU ward and it usually remains occupied. Accommodating more patients is next to impossible,” he added.

Pradhan informed that critical and serious cases were referred to other public hospitals and medical colleges. “If those hospitals too lack space then we suggest them to visit private hospitals,” he said.

Patients already admitted to ICU take considerable time to recover and they cannot be discharged to admit new patients. “However, the hospital is planning to add more beds in ICU,” Pradhan added.

Likewise, Bir Hospital and Kanti Children’s hospital also share similar plight. Bhupendra Basnet, director at Bir Hospital, said the hospital had altogether 25 ICU beds, but there were more patients in need of intensive care. “We also refer patients to other hospitals in such a situation. We are planning to add more beds in ICU ward in the new hospital building.”