TU scraps affiliation granted to KNMC
Teaching hospital was being run without permission of the Ministry of Health — Dr Tirtha Raj Khaniya, vice-chancellor of TU
Kathmandu, September 6
Tribhuvan University today scrapped affiliation given to Kathmandu National Medical College, Ghattekulo.
The university took the decision after a three-member probe panel led by Sanat Devkota, with Dr Prashant Bhatta and Parshu Ram Koirala as members, formed by the university submitted its report today.
The panel recommended that the university should scrap KNMC’s affiliation after it monitored the college in the morning and found that it didn’t meet basic requirements necessary to run the hospital.
“There was no patient in the hospital. Only a doctor, three staff nurses, and a few security guards were there in the hospital. Ticket counter for registering patients too had not opened. During our two-and-a-half hours stay in the hospital no patient visited the hospital. Moreover, there was no evidence that the building was quake resistant. The parking too was congested,” Parshu Ram Koirala, a member of the probe committee and Tribhuvan University Service Commission chief, told THT.
“The teaching hospital was being run without the Ministry of Health’s permission and the monitoring committee found that the hospital didn’t have basic requirements necessary to run a medical college. Therefore, we decided to scrap its affiliation,” Dr Tirtha Raj Khaniya, vice-chancellor of Tribhuvan University, told this daily.
The university had granted affiliation to the medical college to run MBBS programme on July 27 following an order from the Supreme Court.
But on September 2 the TU executive committee decided to put the decision to grant affiliation to KNMC on hold and said the decision to grant affiliation to KNMC would not be implemented for now after the probe committee formed by the Ministry of Health to investigate KNMC submitted its report informing that the teaching hospital was operating without approval from the ministry and lacked requirements necessary to run the hospital.
Meanwhile, Dr Govinda KC, who has been demanding that no new medical college should be allowed in Kathmandu Valley for 10 years, postponed his decision to sit on a fast-unto-death protest after TU decided to scrap the affiliation granted to KNMC.
The doctor had given an ultimatum to the government to withdraw its decision by September 6.
Releasing a press statement today, Dr KC demanded that committee members who made a ‘false’ report about KNMC, as well as TU officials involved in educational crime, should be punished.
He demanded that the Institute of Medicine should get back its rights and sought immediate passage of Medical Education Bill as per the recommendations made by Dr Kedar Bhakta Mathema-led panel from the Legislature Parliament. He threatened to go on another fast-unto-death if his demands weren’t fulfilled.
The Ministry of Education had permitted KNMC to run a 300-bed hospital on June 22, 2012. An inspection team led by Dr Karbir Nath Yogi of the Institute of Medicine, TU, had recommended affiliation to the medical college in 2014.
The erstwhile Sushil Koirala-led government had decided to halt the process of granting affiliation to any new medical college in the capital until passage of the Medical Education Bill, which the Parliament has been debating.
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