Nepalgunj, January 26

Sushil Koirala Cancer Hospital located in Banke’s Khajura Rural Municipality-5 has been without chair, executive director and staffers for long.

The hospital has been sans chair for the past four months. It has been without executive director after then director Dr Bisworam Poudel, who was transferred to the cancer hospital from Bharatpur Cancer Hospital, was recalled to Bharatpur.

Bijay Pathak was appointed hospital chairman ten months ago. But, he has yet to assume duty. The Hospital Development Committee should make two political appointments and hire as many expert doctors, which has not happened.

Committee member Shivraj Shrestha said absence of chairman had hit the hospital hard. Pathak is on the run after he was found to have been allegedly involved in financial anomalies of a cooperative in Banke.

The hospital’s budget is bound to freeze this year for want of the hospital chairman.

Meanwhile, the hospital faces shortage of doctors, nurses and technicians.

Modern machines at the hospital are lying useless for want of technicians. The hospital has got a CT scan, two modern modular operation theatres and mammography machine used for detecting breast cancer. The machines have been gathering dust due to lack of technicians to operate them.

The hospital said its repeated pleas to fill the quotas of technicians and experts with the higher authorities had gone in vain. The hospital has just one oncologist and six staff nurses. As many as 5,500 patients have received service from the hospital till date. A total of 230 cancer patients have been receiving chemotherapy at the hospital of late.