Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Govinda KC launched his 11th indefinite hunger strike on Monday, demanding an end to the anomalies in medical education and immediate endorsement of the Health Profession Education bill.

The HPE bill proposes an overarching framework to regulate medical education including a 10-year moratorium on establishing medical colleges inside Kathmandu Valley, among the reform measures.

The bill tabled in Parliament more than a year ago is currently being reviewed at a parliamentary committee.

Addressing the media before beginning his fast, Dr KC said the government was reluctant to reform medical education, charging that political meddling and nexus between officials and owners of private medical schools have degraded the quality of education.

Dr KC said that the refusal of private colleges to admit meritorious students is because the owners are aided by office bearers of the Tribhuvan University. Dr KC was referring to the admission process in postgraduate programmes where two medical colleges affiliated to the TU—Universal Medical College and National Medical College—admitted students with low entrance test marks despite warning from the regulator.

Dr KC has demanded autonomy for IoM in admissions, course fees and affiliations. He also wants the government to set fees for medical courses until the Health Profession Education Act is passed.

On the TU decision to charge Rs3.1 million for MD/MS programmes, Dr KC said the actual fees should be Rs2.2 million as set by the Kathmandu University.

Dr KC staged his first hunger strike in 2012.

‘Campus chief, assistant deans appointed’

The TU on Monday afternoon appointed Dr Pratap Narayan Prasad as the chief of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj.

Dr Dwarika Shrestha, Dr Rajendra Guragain, Dr Madhu Devkota and Mandira Pant were appointed assistant deans at the Institute of Medicine. The appointments address one of the demands of the fasting doctor.