For the last one year, Thulopatal Health Post in Jiri Municipality Ward No. 9 has been operating from the premises of the ward office in the absence of its own building.

A temporary building of the health post was constructed after the 2015 earthquakes damaged the old building. However, the building had to be vacated due to legal problems.

“We had to leave the temporary building after a resident of the ward filed an application with the municipality office claiming the land plot to be his in mid-April, 2020,” said Janga Bahadur Shah, chief at the health post. “We had to shift the health post to the ward office after the man claimed the land with proof of land ownership certificate.”

The health post is now operating out of three rooms on the ground floor of the ward office’s building.

The limited space in the new location has made the health post rollback on some of its medical services, such as maternity care for local women.

“We had maternity services when we were operating from the temporary building. But we had to halt the services since we don’t have enough space at the ward office,” said Shah.

“There’s no proper space to store medicines. We don’t have enough space in the ward office to provide all the necessary health services to the local people,” said Shah.

After the local health post curtailed some of the medical services, the residents of Thulopatal, a remote area in Dolakha, now have to walk for four hours to reach Jiri bazaar to receive health treatment.

“Since the health post in Thulopatal does not provide maternity services, we have to send pregnant women to Jiri Hospital for child delivery,” said Shah.

According to Gyan Bahadur Sunuwar, chairman of Ward No. 9 in Jiri Municipality, Som Bahadur Tamang, a resident of the ward, filed an application along with proof that the land where the health post was operating from for the past four decades belongs to him.

According to Sunuwar, the health post was established during the Panchayat era and the local authorities do not know much about its initiation.

“We don’t know how the health post came to be established on a private plot of land,” he said. “But we have now purchased six ropanis of land to build a health post. The tender process for the construction of a new building has been completed. The contractor has agreed to complete the construction of the building within three years.”

Keshav Dahal, chief at the health unit of Jiri Municipality, said his office is trying to resume maternity services along with other services in Thulopatal soon.