COVID-19: only seven dedicated hospitals provide emergency service

Kathmandu - The government has designated 30 hospitals for providing emergency service to the COVID-19 patients but only seven are found to be providing such service. A report released by the Nepal Health Research Council states that 23 of the designated hospital are not serving the people coming for concerns related to Corona Virus.

The Ministry of Health and Population had designated 30 hospitals as dedicated hospitals across the country. Furthermore, only 25 of them are carrying out activities related to COVID-19, five were not providing any such service while four were found to be recommending COVID-19 patients to other hospitals, said Executive Director of the Council Dr Pradip Gyawali.

The study also found that among the dedicated hospitals, 20 had ICU units while seven had highly dependency units (HDU). The total number of ICUs units is 235 and 97 HDUs in those hospitals. There are 98 ventilators in 17 of the hospital, with 13 having none. They have set up 729 isolation beds and 1,923 normal beds for the patients.

Likewise, 30 per cent of the hospitals have Corona Virus sample testing facilities, with 17 having RDT facilities and 10 with PCR testing facilities. It may be noted that the Ministry has set up COVID-19 clinics in 93 hospitals for the prevention and control of Corona Virus, with 52 of them providing round-the-clock service. There are a total of 13,724 beds, 1,185 isolation beds, 809 ICU units, 314 ventilators and 279 HDUs in those clinics, according to the Council report.