The district’s oldest hospital has no ENT doctor for the last one year, after Dr Krishna Bahadur Shrestha resigned from the post. The hospital administration is also struggling to run its paediatrics department after Dr Kiran Shakya retired a month ago. The orthopedics department is also without a doctor after Dr Suman Babu Maharatha left last year.

One official said the hospital does not have any government staff quota for orthopedics department till date. Although the hospital has 15 government quotas for doctors, he said, the state has failed to make appointments.

Krishna Hari Gelal, the hospital administrator, said all efforts from their side to hire new doctors have become fruitless. “We have been requesting the Health Ministry to fill the doctor’s vacancies, but its has asked us to  find the candidates first,” said Gelal. “None of the senior doctors are interested to join this hospital, because they prefer to live in Kathmandu since they can give time to their own private clinics and work in other private hospitals.” The 75-bed hospital has witnessed a sharp decline in number of patients in the last two years.

The hospital officials said that until two years ago, they used to receive around 200 new patients and 100 follow up patients on a daily basis. The patients number these days, they said, has declined by almost 50 percent. Shortage of doctors is not the only problem faced by the hospital, though. The district hospital also does not have ambulance service.

“We receive up to 10 emergency calls every day asking for ambulance, but we cannot provide the service,” said Keshav Khatri, the hospital’s receptionist.  

According to one hospital employee, the patients who come for check-ups seldom return for their follow-up because of poor service and lack of experienced doctors. “We do not have senior doctors. Most of the working doctors here are recently recruited without a lot of professional experience in the medical field,” he said.