Heart patients from the eastern Nepal and neighbouring Bihar, India need not go to Kathmandu or the Indian capital New Delhi for open heart surgery as this facility is now available at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) in Dharan, Sunsari.

The BPKIHS has started providing the open heart surgery treatment after 22 years of its operation, Vice Chancellor of the Institute, Prof Balbhadra Prasad Das, said.

Das said it has been possible for them to provide the open heart surgery after Dr Lokesh Jaiswal of the Institute returned completing MCH degree in cardiothoracic surgery from AIIMS hispital in New Delhi.

The Institute had been urging the government since some years back to provide additional financial assistance for starting special treatment services.

Vice Chancellor Das said the Institute will provide advanced specialist services by setting up Cardio CATH Lab, ultrasound equipment, modular CATH Lab and Operation Theatre along with a special treatment room at the Institute's premises with the Rs 200 million assistance that the government has decided to provide to it.

The Institute had been demanding with the government to provide Rs 450 million for upgrading the Institute's services to specialised ones.

With this, patients will avail of advanced heart surgeries including padeocardiac surgery and by-pass surgery under a single roof. Before this heart patients with complicated condition were referred to other hospitals for treatment. RSS