A local unit in Makwanpur district has initiated a health campaign to provide health facilities to senior citizens at their doorstep.

Raksirang Rural Municipality, in collaboration with Lalitpur-based Patan Academy of Health Sciences, launched the ‘Save parents’ health programme at Debitar on Friday.

“We have launched the programme to provide free health facilities to elderly people above the age of 70 at their doorsteps,” said Raj Kumar Mall, the chairman of the local body. A team of health workers, including Dr Kedar Baral and Dr Pradeep Baidya of the academy, examined some elderly people of Debitar and provided them with medicines on Friday.

Raksirang is a remote local unit in Makwanpur district. It is the stronghold of the Chepang community, one of the country's most backward indigeneous enthnic groups, who are deprived of quality health facilities due to poverty. Most of the rural folks in the area still visit shamans instead of health institutions. The recently launched programme is set to benefit the poverty-stricken Chepang people of the rural municipality.

According to Malla, the rural municipality has signed an agreement with Patan Academy of Health Sciences to get technical support for the programme. As per the agreement, critically ill patients from the rural municipality will be taken to Patan Academy of Health Sciences for treatment. The rural municipality has also appointed an MBBS doctor to run the programme.

Bijaya Kumari Kapari, chief of the health unit at Raksirang Rural Municipality, said that the local unit would distribute medicines free of cost to elderly people and also manage ambulance services in case the patients need to be taken to Lalitpur for further treatment.

“The health team from the rural municipality will be mobilised in coordination with the respective ward offices and the local health posts for the treatment of senior citizens,” she added.

As per the data available at the rural municipal office, there are a total of 1,496 people above 70 years of age in Raksirang.

The rural municipality has allocated Rs2 million budget in the current fiscal year to launch the programme. The villagers are hopeful that the programme will provide quality health services to the elderly people of the rural municipality.

“It is not easy to take the elderly to the district headquarters and other well-facilitated hospitals for treatment, mainly due to poverty and geographical remoteness. I hope that needy people in the villages will benefit from the health programme,” said Ram Kumar Chepang, a resident of Ward No. 8 in Raksirang Rural Municipality.

Several settlements in Raksirang are not connected with the national road networks. The villagers have to walk for hours, if not days, to reach the nearest health facility. With the launch of the health programme, eldery people in the rural municipality will be able to get health services at their doorsteps.