Khotang, November 14

Khotang District Hospital has started providing blood test facility to diagnose heart functions at the hospital.

Heart patients in the district can now benefit from the newly introduced service.

Earlier, heart patients had to go outside the district to get their blood tested. Patients, whose heart valves were replaced through surgery, can now avail the test facility as the hospital has managed the device for the same.

British Gorkha Welfare helped the hospital with Rs 120,000 to buy the blood testing device. Rudra Prasad Dhungana, anaesthesia assistant at the hospital, said blood test facility service was started from Monday. He added the hospital had bought prothrombin time (PT) and international normalised ratio (INR) device to test the blood of patients.

PT is a test used for diagnosing bleeding disorders and INR is calculated from the PT result and is used for monitoring how well a blood-thinning medication has been working to prevent blood clot.

Heart patients whose heart valves were changed through surgery have to test their blood every month.

Earlier, patients were compelled to go to Dharan, Biratnagar and Kathmandu every month to get their blood tested.

Though the fee for the test was just Rs 150, Dhungana informed that patients had to spend thousands of rupees on travelling.

“Patients will now benefit with the facility operated in the district hospital,” he added.

British Gurkha Welfare provided the blood test device at the request of the hospital administration.

According to the hospital, as many as 15 to 20 heart patients in the district leave for Kathmandu every month to get their blood tested.