Hetauda, May 6

Nepal Engineering Association Bagmati Province Committee has provided a robot to Hetauda Hospital.

The robot will assist health workers in checking patients and administering medicine.

Hetauda Hospital is the first government health facility to use a robot in the country, according to a hospital source. The robot will be kept in the isolation ward of Hetauda Hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.

According to Hetauda Hospital Chief Dr Prabin Shrestha, the robot will be used to check patients, provide meals and distribute medicines to them. A health worker will stay in a separate room and operate a computer to deliver medicine and food to patients with the help of the robot.

Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City Health Department Chief Supendra Karki said the robot was handed over to the hospital to protect health workers from coronavirus.

Nepal Engineer Association Bagmati Province Committee Chief Nandalal Banjade said the robot was made at a cost of Rs 90,000.

Bagmati Province Chief Minister Dormani Poudel handed over the robot to the hospital authorities and asked its doctors and health workers to use the technology to the fullest to stop the spread of coronavirus.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 7, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.