Shahid Gangalal National Heart Centre (SGNHC) is set to expand its medical services to the mid-western region.

A memorandum of understanding to this effect will be signed next week between the SGNHC and Bheri Zonal Hospital in Nepalgunj to start heart, services. A cath lab will also be set up at Bheri Zonal Hospital. A heart specialist of Bheri Zonal Hospital will oversee the SGNHC’s expanded unit in Nepalgunj. 

The move is expected to benefit thousands of heart patients. 

People with heart ailments from the region either have to travel all the way to Kathmandu or other private hospitals or hospitals in India for treatment. But many doctors suggest that a majority of people remain untreated because of unavailability of services or failure to afford treatment and are left to die. 

“We have agreed to procure cath lab for Bheri Zonal Hospital,” said Dr Jyotindra Sharma, director at the SGNHC. “This will be a milestone in decentralising our services.”

Dr Sharma said the Ministry of Health has agreed to provide necessary budget for procuring cath lab while the SGNHC will train doctors and paramedics to operate the equipment. 

A cath lab is a sophisticated laboratory of a cardiology unit of the hospital where complex procedures such as angiogram and angioplasty are performed and pacemakers are implanted.

Among the government health facilities, only the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences offers cath lab services.  

What is more important about the service expansion is that the SGNHC will procure goods for the Nepalgunj hospital which will come at relatively cheaper price. The cost of a heart stent that used to cost Rs 150,000 at the SGNHC has now been reduced to Rs 60,000 through a competitive bidding, and the patients can avail themselves of the service at a reduced price at the zonal hospital as well.

Each day, the SGNHC sees over 600 patients in its outpatient department, while it conducts over 1,500 angioplasty, a surgical procedure to open blocked pathway to heart for normal blood flow. 

“It is impossible to provide specialty care in the ground without collaborating with bigger government hospitals and medical schools,” said Minister for Health Gagan Kumar Thapa. “What this does is it reduces the unnecessary cost borne by patients as they can access the services near their homes. Also, such expansion of services also brings back the lost faith in government health facilities.”

The MoH had also recently collaborated with the National Academy of Health Sciences, Bir Hospital and Institute of Medicine to begin specialty services in 13 district hospitals including Sarlahi, Dhading, Rolpa, Gorkha, Aarghakhanchi, Udaypur, Dhankuta, Nawalparasi, Saptari, Mahendranagar, Dang, Nuwakot and Baglung.