Kailali, December 11

Seti Zonal Hospital in Dhangadi, Kailali, of Province 7 has remained in a sorry state of late, due to weak management, lack of staff and poor physical infrastructure.

According to medical officer at the hospital Dilip Shrestha, though 2,000 patients had been admitted to the hospital in the past one month, the patients could not receive medical treatment due to lack of doctors.

Locals accused the doctors of telling patients to visit private clinics rather than treating them in the hospital. They also complained that doctors were not available when patients needed them. There are as many as 46 doctors currently working in the hospital.

Ganga Sah, a local of Dhangadi Campus Road said, “It is hard to find on-duty doctors here. We are fed up with looking for them,” she added.

A staffer at the hospital administration said there was no mechanism to regulate health workers at the health facility.

Another staffer at the hospital said almost all the doctors had been working at private hospitals and clinics. “The doctors are only bothered about how they can refer visiting patients to private hospitals,” he added. The staffer also said service quality in the hospital had degraded, at present.

Meanwhile, the Hospital Development Committee Chair Rita Bhandari blamed the situation on weak management of the hospital. He also said the hospital administration could not manage the waste generated from the hospital. Acting medical superintendent at the hospital Dr Sajan KC said the concerned municipality had been ignoring their frequent request to collect garbage.