I felt dejected as I went through the sorry state of affairs of a patient and his family at a hospital building in

Kathmandu “Unable to pay bills, patient languishes in trauma centre with wife, children” (I, March 17, Page 2 ). The family has been grieving there for seven months for not being able to pay their hospital expenses. Reading this, one can easily imagine how they must feel being neglected and hapless. But this is just an example of so many of those families who have been suffering due to lack of money. However, the government which claims to be a welfare state seems to be apathetic to those people who cannot afford to pay even for the hospital bills. Trauma centre is the only facility of the country which should be able to provide services to those patients. Moreover, what is even more distressing is that the government, without any hesitation, can manage a lot of money for the expenses of the politicians’ health check-up abroad but cannot come up with any funds or mechanism to bear the medical expenses of the people lacking in resources.

Rupak R Khanal, Bhaktapur

Poor services

This is with reference to the news story “No ambulance for patients” (THT, March 18, Page 4). We are in a new era of having a new constitution that guarantees the fundamental right of every citizen to health services. The people of Jajarkot are facing the problem of getting the health services because of the dysfunctional condition of the ambulance. The concerned authorities should repair the ambulance so that the needy people can take immediate benefit. There must be adequate budget for the repairs and maintenance of the ambulance, hospital facilities as well as adequate number of human resources to provide services to the people in the rural areas who die even of simple illnesses as a result of the poor facilities available at the health centres.

Neela Adhikari, Koteshwor

Gharial

The gharial species were brought back to life from brink of extinction after setting up a captive breeding center in the Chitwan and Bardiya national parks. Even though conservation efforts are on the species is still listed in the endangered animals. Their number declined to a threat level due to aquatic pollution, habitat destruction and over exploitation of their body parts to stimulate sexual organs by people. Constructions of dams across the major rivers are also attributed to the rapid decline of the gharial crocodiles who cannot cross over the dam from downstream to upstream. The man-made infrastructures have caused the destruction of aquatic habitat not only in Nepal but in India as well. In order to solve the problem of dwindling number of gharial crocodile we must preserve the aquatic life, keep the river system clean and stop human encroachment of their habitats. Creating breeding centres is not the solution. We must work in tandem with other aspects as well.

Diwakar Sapkota, Hetauda