The Kathmandu National Medical College, which recently got affiliation to run medical courses, has made a desperate bid to attract patients to its Ghattekulo hospital run without permission.

Its new strategy is to offer free beds to patients, in a scheme announced on the occasion of the Teej festival. On Saturday, National advertised the offer on a national daily, promising 100 percent discount on general bed and OPD charges. Also, 50 percent and 40 percent discounts have been offered in “diagnosis” and “X-ray services”, respectively. However, the “diagnosis” has not been specified. The scheme is said to be valid from August 24 to September 15.

A few days ago, the college announced vacancies for several consultants, doctors and health professionals. The National College, which made headlines for its lack of patients, is trying to increase the flow of patients in its apartment-turned-hospital building to claim bed occupancy for running the MBBS programme.

At its current state, the hospital does not meet a majority of the criteria set by the Nepal Medical Council to offer MBBS courses. Even the emergency wards were found almost vacant during visits by the Post earlier this week. There were few medical officers or MBBS doctors in the hospital while the presence of the senior professors was nil.

“The recent issue of National is an example of institutionalisation of impunity and lawlessness in the country,” said Dr Raamesh Koirala, advisor to former health minister Gagan Thapa. “Such a bold measure to run a hospital without permission from the Health Ministry means that the people who run National think they can do anything with money.”

Dr Koirala urged the ministry and other concerned government agencies to review the decision of the Tribhuvan University to affiliate the college.

The TU Executive Council on July 27 granted affiliation to the medical school grounding its decision on a Supreme Court verdict. The country’s oldest varsity has claimed that the affiliation was given to the medical college to run the MBBS course as per the order of SC’s division bench of then-Chief Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma and Justice Om Prakash Mishra on September 16, 2014.

In the final hearing, the SC had argued that there was no reason to deny affiliation if the medical college meets the set criteria. However, another SC decision on March 2, 2017 had stated that barring the affiliation was not a case of contempt of court, as claimed by the petitioner, since the government was working seriously in ending anomalies in the medical education sector.

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.