The Baglung-based Dhaulagiri Hospital, a major health institution in the Gandaki province which caters to people from several surrounding districts also, plans to upgrade to a provincial hospital.

The hospital administration—in collaboration with people’s representatives and stakeholders—plans to operate 200 beds along with state-of-the-art services.

“Works are on to construct additional physical infrastructures for the operation of 200 beds and develop the hospital as a medical college,” said Dr Rabiranjan Pradhan, the medical superintendent at the hospital. According to him, the hospital administration also aims to run a trauma centre at the hospital soon.

Dhaulagiri Hospital currently operates a total of 126 beds including four ICU beds, four NICU, 29 beds in the isolation centre and 15 beds in the emergency unit. Additional 100 beds purchased four years ago have been kept at the hospital’s store.

“The hospital will add 75 more beds and turn the hospital into a provincial hospital,” said Pradhan.

Dhaulagiri Hospital, which has often been marred by a shortage of skilled human resources, currently has enough health workers including specialist doctors.

According to Narayan Sharma Paudel, the chairman of the hospital management committee, 15 specialist doctors, eight medical officers, two dentists and 45 staff nurses are currently working at the institution. He said the federal and provincial governments had provided specialist doctors since last month.

“The hospital and patients faced a huge problem due to the lack of gynaecologists. We had to send patients to either Pokhara or other cities to visit gynaecologists. But we can now provide gynaecological services here at the hospital itself,” said Paudel.

Only one post each for radiologist and dermatologist are vacant at the hospital now, according to Paudel.

Dhaulagiri Hospital, previously a district hospital, was upgraded into a ‘specialist hospital’ in 2010. It is a major health institution serving Baglung and its neighbouring Parbat and Myagdi districts. In the last fiscal year, 1,187 people received safe delivery services at the hospital, and among them, 536 involved major surgeries.

The hospital is also preparing to run a trauma centre. The government had announced plans to set up the Hari Khadka Trauma Centre in memory of Constituent Assembly member Khadka, who died in a road accident in 2014. Accordingly, the Gandaki provincial government had released Rs5 million in the fiscal year 2018-19. The provincial government allocated Rs100 million in the current fiscal year to purchase necessary equipment to run the trauma centre.

The hospital currently has two buildings. The hospital management has decided to establish the trauma centre in the third annex which is under construction. “The procurement process to purchase tools and equipment has already begun. The construction of the building will also be completed within a couple of months. The trauma centre will be started by the end of the current fiscal year,” said Tej Prasad Niure, the administrative officer at the hospital.

Baglung Municipality also released Rs2 million to Dhaulagiri Hospital to expand its services. “The hospital plans to construct two additional buildings shortly to expand health services,” said Niure.