First army hospital of eastern Nepal in operation

Itahari, February 28

Chief of the Army Staff General Purna Chandra Thapa today inaugurated the first military hospital in the eastern part of the country in Itahari on the premises of East Division Headquarters of Nepali Army.

Financed by Army Welfare Fund, the hospital is the third standard military hospital outside Kathmandu, according to COAS Thapa. ‘’We have already constructed similar military hospitals in Pokhara and Nepalgunj,’’ said COAS Thapa in his brief address to the attendees of the formal function.

“This will reduce crowd at Birendra Military Hospital in Kathmandu and will make it easy for military personnel and their family members of this region to access health services,’’ COAS Thapa added.

He said satellite hospitals were also being constructed in Dhangadi and Bardibash. Thapa said military hospitals outside Kathmandu were constructed addressing the requests of retired soldiers of Nepali Army.

Construction of the 50-bed military hospital had started on 1 January 2017 and was completed on 1 December 2018.

The hospital, which spreads over around 30,000 square metre area, was built at Rs 160 million, informed Nischal Jung Rayamajhi, a construction engineer of the hospital. “The two-storey building, access roads and all other associated infrastructures are included in this budget,’’ said Rayamajhi. The hospital will have multiple medical facilities such as emergency services, pathology, endoscopy, ultrasound, X-Ray, physiotherapy, general OPD and dispensary, according to officials of East Division Headquarters.

The two-storey hospital building has intensive care unit, isolated ward, male and female ward, post-operative ward, gynae operation theatre, surgical operation theatre and main operation theatre. “Our hospital has 77 health workers, including 13 experienced doctors,’’ said Dr Ushab Rana Mohsin, a commanding officer.

Though the hospital was constructed mainly to provide health service for serving and retired soldiers and their immediate family members, it will provide health services to general public in the near future, said Laxmi Gautam, deputy mayor of Itahari. “I have talked to COAS Thapa about it and he is positive in this regard,’’ said Gautam, who was also present at the inaugural function.