KATHMANDU,April 26

Major hospitals in Kathmandu Valley are facing several problems and that could worsen if the government fails to pay due attention.

TribhuvanUniversity Teaching Hospital (TUTH) is about to face shortage of oxygen and necessary medicine within a day or two. One of the nurses at TUTH complained at the emergency meeting of the Heads of Departments that the red area was facing shortage of oxygen which could lead to casualties.

According to senior doctor Prem Khadka with disrupted electricity supply to the hospital,production of oxygen through its plant has been affected.”We have already informed the government about the crisis and urged the authorities to seek help from the Indian government as well if there were no other options,” he said, adding that the private company from which the hospital used to get oxygen has been damaged due to the earthquake. Problem of oxygen has also increased because patients had to be treated outside the hospital rooms equipped with oxygen supply.

Patan Hospital is somehow managing the supply of oxygen, but the problem could be severe if the government fails to manage it soon.Administrator Lilaraj Adhikary said with the increasing inflow of disaster victims and more than 350 in-patients, the hospital is having very difficult time managing the mall as most patients were going out in the open due to fear of tremors.”

The medicine we have in stock could last for two to three days only,” he said. He said a delegation of Dr Pawan Sharma and Dr Sangita Bhandari had met government ministers to inform about the possible crises. Another problem the hospitals are facing is lack of medicine with the increasing number of earthquake victims. “With the existing disaster box we can manage only for a day or two and therefore government should find some ways to supply the medicine by then,” he said.The most important problem is that disaster victims could not be treated inside the hospital as they fear tremor could happen anytime.”

With all the doctors, patients and attendees out of hospital rooms, the lab technicians also refused to do their jobs risking their lives due to recurring tremors,” said Kumar KC, a senior officer at TUTH. Dr Khadka said the hospitals would also face the problem of food and cooking gas as medical officers have been working round-the-clock only with food. “Those working extra hours were not getting extra pay. They just get food from the hospital,”he said.