Rasuwa, July 1

Two years after the devastating 2015 earthquake, the district hospital in Rasuwa is still providing its services to patients from a makeshift tent due to the delay in reconstruction work.

The hospital building was completely destroyed in the earthquake. Two health workers, an office helper and four female health volunteers died when the hospital building collapsed.

Following the disaster, Nepal Red Cross Society had provided tent apparatus and other medical equipment to the hospital to resume services.

“Despite the odds, the hospital is providing uninterrupted service,” said information officer at District Public Health Office Krishna Raj Tiwari.

The health facility provides a wide range of services like delivery, emergency and OPD, X-ray, HIV-test and eye check-up, among others.

The hospital dealt with 51 delivery cases last year alone while it receives 30 to 35 patients on a daily basis. Although the government provides various 70 types of medicines for free, the hospital has only 50 types of the medicines at present.

Construction of a well-equipped prefabricated building with technical and financial support from Canadian Red Cross is at the final stage, said programme coordinator Dr Mausam Bohara. The hospital building will have 15 beds with other facilities like emergency, OPD, delivery and laboratory.

Likewise, the Canadian Red Cross has also agreed to provide ultrasound and electrocardiogram machines while the hospital has already received a generator.

Earlier, an agreement had been reached between the health ministry and various organisations, including Canadian Red Cross, American Red Cross Society, British Red Cross Society and Japanese Red Cross Society to reconstruct 31 damaged hospital buildings in six districts.