Health Services Disrupted Nationwide as Doctors Protest Mistreatment

Kathmandu. Health workers have halted all services except emergencies in health institutions across the country in protest of mistreatment and assault on doctors. In this regard, general public who came for treatment at Bir Hospital and National Trauma Center in Kathmandu have fallen into serious trouble.

Patients who came from afar hoping for treatment have been left stranded after government, private and non-governmental hospitals across the country were closed at the call of the Doctors' Association in protest of the attack on doctors.

Due to the emergency closure, patients who came from remote districts after bearing significant expenses and hardship are forced to stay outside the main gate of Bir Hospital. A 70-year-old elderly woman from Gulmi, who had come to Kathmandu a month ago, arrived at Bir Hospital today for her check-up in a condition where she could not even walk. She was stunned to learn that the hospital was closed.

She believes that while assaulting doctors is wrong, it is not justifiable to cause hardship to the general public by closing the hospital itself.

Bimaya, who came from Okhaldhunga with a back pain problem, and 70-year-old Chhatrabahadur Tamang, who came with her, share a similar plight. Having arrived in Kathmandu only on Monday, they are in a dilemma today as the hospital is closed.

Nageshwar Yadav, who came from Janakpur for back pain treatment, was disappointed to find the gate closed when he reached the hospital at 8 am. Expressing his anger, he said, 'It is unfortunate that doctors are beaten and they should get security, but where will patients like us who come from afar after borrowing money go when hospitals across the country are closed due to a problem in one place?'

The impact of the closure is evident not only at Bir Hospital but also equally at the National Trauma Center. According to Narbahadur Syangtan of Makwanpur Gadhi-6, who is undergoing knee treatment for his father at the Trauma Center, the operations of patients who were kept ready for surgery and told to fast since the previous night were also stopped at the last moment today. He said that this has created an atmosphere of anger and confusion.

A woman from Sarlahi Lalbandi-12 had come to Kathmandu for a leg operation on Jestha 2. Her operation, scheduled for today, has been canceled for the third time due to the health institution closure and postponed to Monday. Patients and their attendants are under extreme financial and mental stress due to having to fast all day and repeatedly postpone their appointments.

While the demand for the security and justice of the doctors' lives and bodies is legitimate, the common citizens are at increased risk of losing their lives by making the sensitive health sector a place for strikes and closures. Considering this sensitive situation, it seems necessary for the government and stakeholders to immediately sit down for talks and find a solution.