It seems to me that the government’s decision to make doctors accountable and lawfully punished if found guilty of negligence during the course of treatment may not be palatable to all the doctors whose professional expertise might be questioned due to poor quality of medical education “Govt for stern action against negligent doctors” (THT, September 19, Page 1).

Many doctors were found possessing fake certificates as found out a few months ago by the Criminal Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and even were sent to jail. We do not know now what happened to these quack doctors. Did they return to their duties and started their practices? Were they relieved from their jobs? Are these doctors behind the unwanted incidents that are happening in the private hospitals? This has been an urgent issue to be researched by the research journalists to bring out the findings.

It’s good to see that the people have been more vocal these days if they suspect any foul play in the death of their kin during the course of treatment and have started raising their voices against such incidents. It has also been seen that the hospital management does not seem to be considerate towards the sudden death of patients and console the family members and protect the incompetent doctors. It may be a harsh word towards the hospital administrations which are oriented towards profit making business rather than providing quality services. This is entirely due to lack of regular supervision and monitoring from the government and its concerned authorities.

People are found paying enormous amount of money in the name of medical expenses in the private hospitals. Time has come for the government to establish some criteria to categories the private hospitals according to their trained human resources and availability of infrastructure.

Rai Biren Bangdel, Maharajgunj

Banknotes 

This is with reference to the article “Using Banknotes” (THT, September 19, Page 8). Yes, indeed, I agree with the writer wholeheartedly. In our country the banknotes are not properly handled. The use of cash is very rare in developed countries.

All transactions can be done online. The use of banknotes is replaced by the gift vouchers and the bank cards by which the folks pay their expenses for almost everything. This is tremendously helping people and making their way of life easier than we could imagine. Using cash is not safe, either. It promotes the risk sometimes of the hooligans taking the life of folks carrying cash. People have many hassles. For example, the cash may slip through the pocket and sometimes it may not be documented. If people do their transactions on the net bank then that can be reviewed if something unusual things happens, because it is documented and safety would be in the place from where they buy and where they deposit.

These sorts of things can be tractable with the help of technology. Using banknotes therefore is not a good idea in this modern age. However, in Nepal it will take time to shift towards paperless transactions.

Shiva Neupane, Melbourne