Essential prescriptions

This is in reference to the article “Crime? Or Punishment?”

(THT, May 3). It is true that majority of the street children are taking the most economical and easily accessible methods of getting “high” by sniffing “dendrite”. Not only that, most of them also find easy access to drugs like Nitrazepam and Diphenhydramine, which are easily available over the counter in most of the drug stores of the valley. The streets in Basantpur and the “Freak” street nearby provide a place for the young and old who wish to access these and other sedatives. Because of this, antisocial incidents have gone up. It has become impossible to walk the streets of Ranjana Galli, Thamel and other areas of Basantpur during the evenings, mostly for ladies. The concerned authorities should put in a legal order to the drugs stores to sell sedatives only via medial prescription and to go hand in hand with the other organizations to help these street children at the earliest.

Dr.Pallav Bhattarai, via e-mail

Lacking

The most important thing lacking in the course for building new Nepal is the rationalization in the technological sector. The current IT world is demanding a comprehensive approach in the field of information and all we are doing is neglecting the importance of the technology in our mundane life activities. Many rural areas in Nepal are obscured in terms of technology. Even if our country is an

agricultural one, the main prospect in this field is negated by the lack of advanced methodology. Although it is quite necessary for the concerned authorities to take a meticulous look over this side, the current actions and state of the government is quite esoteric for a normal Nepali citizen. If this state of trauma continues then it would be quite obvious to say that our dream to create a heaven would vapourise soon.

Sudarsan Dhakal, Pokhara

Unfortunate

This is in regard to the decision implementing a prohibition on the 48 week pre-internship

(clinical exposure) course imposed by the Ministry of Health and Population in May 2007. This decision prevents us (Nepalese Medical students studying MBBS in foreign countries) from learning and performing clinical skills in Nepal, which until now was an integral part of our curriculum.

Pre-internship plays a pivotal role in our pursuit of a career in medicine and this decision could turn out to be detrimental, not only for the students but also for the country. As Nepalese medical graduates from foreign countries will also be practicing medicine in Nepal, alongside graduates from Nepalese medical colleges and dealing with different health conditions, disorders and diseases prevalent and endemic in Nepal, pre-internship unquestionably provides an opportunity for us to get exposed to these conditions.

Disallowing us to do pre-internship in Nepal may foil this opportunity as our respective countries of study may not have similar conditions and health issues.The fact that a decision taken by the Ministry of Health and Population in 2007 is being exercised and implemented upon students who started their MBBS curse two years before the decision was taken in 2005) is very unfortunate and disheartening.

Also, as the new regulation is being imposed upon us, fellow medical students of other SAARC nations from our university are being granted to carry-out their pre-internship without any restriction in their respective countries. Their government have realised and acknowledged the fact.

A team of experts visited our university in the recent past and proclaimed our wish to do pre-internship in Nepal to be “illegal” and voiced that the clinical course should be completed in the same institution where the theoretical course was studied. If this was the case then why is it only now that his is being exercised when previous batches have been allowed to do their pre-internship in various hospitals all over Nepal.

Considering the aforementioned facts and realising the gravity of the situation, we would like to

request the Government of Nepal - Ministry of Health and Population to revoke its decision and grant us permission on doing pre-internship in Nepal.

Batch of 2005

Nepali students, Tianjin Medical University, P.R.China