Kathmandu, November 9

A second follow-up survey conducted by Chanda Rana, an environmentalist, shows that the situation of the medical sector has gone from bad to worse as a result of the current crisis in the country.

“Finding ever busy cardiac surgeons Dr Man Bahadur KC, Dr Bhagawan Koirala and Dr Yadav Bhatta waiting for a very low number of patients, I felt the flow of patients had dropped tentatively to nearly 60 per cent when I visited the major hospitals for my second follow-up survey on the impact of the fuel crisis,” she said.

While rechecking major hospitals and more than 50 major pharmacies for any improvement in restocking of urgently needed life-saving drugs and other needed drugs as part of the second follow-up survey, she was informed that nothing had been done yet so far .

“To worsen the situation, canteens of the hospitals were about to close down due to lack of cooking gas which has a direct impact on food supply to patients admitted to hospitals. Enough ambulance services are not available to collect emergency patients. And we can imagine that people are dying at home,” she explained.

“One can imagine the situation of earthquake victims sheltering inside tents when the capital is facing such a harsh situation,” said Rana. She said she is probably the first one to raise the issue and conduct the study on the impact of the current situation on medical services.

On October 6, Rana visited all the major hospitals and more than 50 major pharmacies by October 11, thereby releasing her findings to make the concerned authorities aware about the situation through media. “The findings is alarming as we are running out of life-saving drugs,” she informed.

During the second phase of her survey, she issued an appeal to the Prime Minister for prompt action to restock hospitals with needed drugs. She submitted her findings with suggestions to the government as well as to the Office of the Prime Minister.

“I was disappointed when I visited hospitals for my follow up survey. Nothing has been done so far,” Rana said. “Necessary drugs should be imported via other border points or even airlifted as soon as possible.

With priority, hospitals should be provided enough fuel to run their services. All doctors and hospital staff should be provided transport services so that they can attend their duties regularly.