Health Minister, parliamentary committee to discuss Medical Education Bill

Kathmandu - The government talks team and the team on behalf of the agitating Dr Govinda KC engaged on dialogue have agreed to hold a discussion between the concerned Minister and a parliamentary committee. 

During the talks held between the two sides on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education Gopal Man Shrestha informed that they have agreed to hold meeting between the Health Minister and a parliamentary committee on the medical education bill- major demand of the agitating Dr KC, on Tuesday. 

Similarly, Joint Spokesperson at the Ministry of Education, Saraswati Pokhrel, said the discussion would be attended by Minister for Health Giriraj Mani Pokhrel, President of the Parliamentary Committee on Women, Children, and Senior Citizens, Ranju Kumari Jha, and the officials involved in the preparation of report of the Mathema Commission. 

Dr Abhishekh Raj Singh, a talks team member on behalf of Dr KC, however, said as the talks on Monday did not touch upon the major demand as of the passage of medical education bill and the dismissal of two office bearers at TU, they were meeting on Tuesday as well. 

Dr KC has been staging fast-onto-death for the 11th round, demanding the passage of the medical education bill and other reforms in medical sector. 

Monitoring of government hospital 

A high-level team of the Health Ministry carried out a monitoring of the central hospitals in the capital city on Monday. 

The team monitored hospitals' human resources, equipments, physical infrastructure, availability of drugs in drugstore, situation of free health care programmes, status of service delivery and others after Minister Pokharel instructed the Secretary, chiefs of divisions and other top officials to monitor hospitals and submit a report. 

Three teams led by Chief Consultants Dr Pushpa Chaudhary and Dr Binod Man Shrestha, chief of monitoring and evaluation division Dr Dipendra Raman Singh visited the hospitals in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts and the Public Health Offices, team member of the monitoring committee Dr Bholaram Shrestha said. 

Based on the preliminary report of the monitoring, most of the hospitals were found lacking human resources and availability of medicines. 

Likewise, Minister Pokharel directed to submit detailed report by 5 pm Tuesday on different aspects including situation of hospitals and health institutions located out of the Kathmandu Valley, status of health services in the local level, preparations of health institutions in the federalism and others.