Minister vows to check corruption in govt hospitals

Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, January 19:

Dr Banshidhar Mishra, State Minister for Health, today said the Health Ministry has set up a mechanism to take action against the doctors and laboratories which have not been discharging their duty properly. Addressing an interaction here today, Dr Mishra also vowed to check corruption mounting in government hospitals.

The ministry has been making surprise visits to public hospitals and those doctors who have been found absent during the visits have been listed for further investigation and action, he said. “It has become a must as most of the doctors have been feeding wrong information regarding the reliability of public hospitals and referring patients to their private clinics,” said Mishra. “We are collecting information on those doctors who refer their patients to private clinics and do not devote themselves in the hospitals during office hours, and serious action will be taken against them,” he said.

The interaction on how to improve the quality in medical field was organised by Chemical and Medical Suppliers’ Association. Sushil Thapa, president of the association, said the government should follow standard guidelines while giving licences to medical laboratories. Thapa said the lack of clear-cut policies and hassles in customs offices while importing medical equipment has posed a serious problem to medical suppliers. He also stressed the need of transparency while bidding tenders for medical supplies to hospitals and of clear-cut policies for maintaining quality of the services.

Dr Mishra vowed to take action against those laboratories which have been operating without government permission. “The ministry has the monitoring unit and that will check whether the laboratories are performing as per the criteria set up by the government few months back,” he said. Dr Damoder Pokhrel, medical superintendent at Bir Hospital, said there should a system in which the expertise of the related experts be included while approving tenders for medical supplies.