Nepalgunj, December 2

The protracted Tarai agitation and the blockade at the border have slowed down patient flow causing hospitals and health centres to wear a deserted look in Nepalgunj.

Nepalgunj Medical College, Bheri Zonal Hospital, Western Hospital, among other health facilities, are empty as patients have stopped visiting them.

Bheri Zonal Hospital that used to be overcrowded with patients looks vacant. The flow of patients has gone down significantly at the OPD, emergency and other departments.

With the number of patients decreasing, the schedule of doctors and health workers’ has eased.

Bheri Zonal Hospital said that patient flow had dropped due to fuel shortage caused by the blockade. Medical Superintendent Dr Shyam Sundar Yadav at Bheri Hospital said that patients used to come to the hospital from various districts of the mid and far-west.

“The number of patients has gone gown due to lack of vehicular movement,” Yadav said. He said that the number of patients had fallen by 50 per cent. According to him, the hospital used to be visited by as many as 700 patients on a daily basis at its OPD section before. “But, now the number is around 200 per day,” Yadav added.

Similarly, the number of patients coming to the emergency ward has gone down to 40 compared to 100 previously.

The hospital is running out of medicine. The hospital is having a hard time buying oxygen for ICU and NICU.

Medical Superintendent Yadav said that pharmacies had failed to deliver drugs to the hospital, citing the fuel crisis. “We have directed pharmacies to send drugs, but they have not done so,” Yadav added.

He said that medicine in stock had met the immediate needs due to drop in the number of patients.

Bheri Zonal Hospital has signed contracts with around half a dozen firms for medicine purchase. The firms, however, have failed to supply medicine owing to acute fuel crisis.