The committee that recommended Tribhuvan University affiliation to National Medical College, Ghattekulo, had apparently submitted a fake inspection report listing non-existent infrastructure and services.

The inspection team led by Dr Karbir Nath Yogi, professor at the TU Institute of Medicine, had submitted in 2014 reports that do not match the reality on the number of doctors and hospital staff, number of beds and the patient flow, among other things. Hospitals have to meet the set criteria in order to qualify for running medical schools.

Based on the report, the TU Executive Council on July 27 granted affiliation to the medical school. This college is an extension of the Birgunj-based National Medical College, owned by Basruddin Ansari, who is tipped to be the CPN-UML mayoral candidate for the Birgunj Metropolitan City.

According to the report, a copy of which has been obtained by the Post, there are more than 65 faculties at the hospital. The clinical department saw around 50 patients daily while their gynaecology and obstetrics departments conducted at least 30 deliveries a month. Also, there were at least 40 neo-natal ICUs.

These claims of the team are all but false, visits to the hospital by the Post on Sunday and Monday showed. The hospital had no patients. Even the emergency wards were almost vacant except for a doctor and the guard. Also, there were few medical officers or MBBS doctors at the hospital while the presence of senior professors claimed in the inspection report was nil. Few books could be seen in library racks, against their reported number of over 2,000.

The report provides many bits of falsified information in its bid to ensure that National meets the criteria set by the Nepal Medical Council. Another instance of this manipulation is the false property details of the institution.

The report says National has over 100 ropani land, claiming a major area to be in Lamatar, Lalitpur. The NMC regulations require the property to be within a 10 kilometre periphery but in National’s case the claimed land lies more than 14 km from Ghattekulo.

The university had formed the inspection committee bypassing its own IoM that oversees medical education. Sources said then Vice-chancellor Hira Bahadur Maharjan, under political influence and pressure from medical college owners, had formed the panel to inspect the colleges that had claimed to have fulfilled all the required criteria to run undergraduate programmes.

The committee had visited National College on November 11 and 12, 2013. The report was submitted to the TU on November 13, recommending affiliation.

Dr Yogi claimed to have submitted the details as seen during the inspection. “They had faculties and patients,” said Dr Yogi, requesting omission of any details that might drag him into a controversy.

Members of the inspection team included Dr KP Singh, former director of the TU Teaching Hospital; Dr Pramod Kumar Shrestha of the forensic department; Dr Parshuram Mishra, department of surgery at the TUTH; Dr Jyoti Sharma, gynaecologist; and Dr Ram Prasad Upreti, former chief of the Maharajgunj Campus.