Nepal Launches Online Portal to Track Free Hospital Beds for Underprivileged Patients

Kathmandu. The Government of Nepal has begun publishing the status of the 10 percent free beds allocated for underprivileged, helpless, and destitute patients in hospitals across the country through an online portal. A system has been developed via the 'Free Health Portal' to allow real-time monitoring of available free beds in hospitals and the details of patients currently receiving treatment on them.

The government has taken this concrete step to make the system, which was previously limited to paperwork, transparent through technology. Article 35 of the Constitution of Nepal 2072 guarantees every citizen the right to receive basic health services from the state for free and ensures that no one is deprived of emergency health services.

The Ministry of Health and Population stated that this online system will prove helpful in strictly implementing the constitutional mandate and the provisions mentioned in Section 70 (d) of the Health Institution Operation Standards 2077.

Under this system, not only government but also private and community hospitals must digitally update their legal obligation to provide 10 percent of their total beds for free. The portal will include details such as the patient's admission date, bed number, department, and diagnosis. This will discourage the trend of only well-connected individuals accessing free services, ensuring that the actual target groups can easily receive treatment.

To make health services more accountable, the government has also implemented the 'Hospital Service Improvement Procedure' to monitor hospitals. This will also regulate the attendance of health workers in hospitals.

In the coming days, the government plans to integrate this with an integrated 'Digital Patient Record System,' which will curb unnecessary referrals and allow patients to easily access their treatment history.