Now this is very sad news. Poor people in Nepal can afford only the government hospitals but unfortunately, they are not functioning as they should due to the lack of a number of medical paraphernalia. There are many cases in which patients have to wait days together to get medical treatment for their ailments in the government hospitals due to inadequate medical facilities resulting in even premature deaths.

The following news published on The Kathmandu Post dated July 13, 2023 sheds light into the miserable plight of the government hospitals:

Laxmi Prasad Niraula was brought to Bir Hospital in Kathmandu on July 29, all the way from Ilam. Niraula was suffering from jaundice and had fluid accumulating in his stomach. He had been referred to Bir Hospital by the Nobel Medical College in Biratnagar and required immediate treatment. On the afternoon of July 30, Niraula remained on a bed in the emergency ward, awaiting treatment. Attending doctors had told his relatives that Niraula couldn’t be admitted to the hospital because there were no beds free in the general ward. He could seek treatment at a private hospital instead, he was told.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I could afford private care,” 52-year-old Niraula told the Post. “I will stay here until I receive treatment or I will die.” Every day, dozens of underprivileged patients like Niraula visit Nepal’s oldest hospital, not because it is the best medical care facility in the country but because it performs a vital public service—it treats the poor for free. But every day, numerous patients face the same dilemma that is plaguing Niraula. The hospital is overcrowded and it doesn’t have enough beds, forcing doctors to ask patients, even desperately poor ones from the country’s hinterlands, But these patients can’t afford care anywhere else, so many of them end up camping out in or outside Bir Hospital, waiting for a bed in the general ward. As one of the country’s few tertiary care medical facilities, Bir Hospital receives referred patients from all over the country, especially those who cannot afford private, or even subsidized, medical care. But the last refuge for the country’s sick and poor has long been beset by mismanagement, political interference and a lack of human resources. At the time of reporting, for two days, not even a nurse came to see Niraula. Since the hospital is so understaffed, not a single doctor or nurse works the night shift at Bir, say administrators.

“Only paramedics and medical officers see patients at night,” Dr Kedar Prasad Ceintury, hospital director, told the Post. After spending all night in the emergency ward, sharing the narrow bed with one, or at times two other patients, Niraula and his relatives were frantic. His family members were attempting to contact anyone they knew in positions of power who could help Niraula, but to no avail.

“Every day, over a dozen people—ministers, lawmakers, political leaders and others—call me for a bed on behalf of someone they know,” said Ceintury. “No recommendation is needed when we have vacant beds.”

But Ceintury conceded that every day, dozens of patients who come to the hospital for quality care at an affordable price are forced to seek private care due to a lack of sufficient beds at the hospital.

“When patients are forced to wait for days if not months for treatment or even to just meet the doctor, all their hopes shatter,” said Gagan Thapa, a former Health Minister. “They are forced to seek private care and all their expectations from the state and government are destroyed.”

Most patients seem to know that getting admitted to Bir Hospital is a long shot, and yet, there are few choices for the poor.