Just weeks after being appointed new chief, Dr Koirala, who made his name successfully establishing and running Shahid Gangalal National Heart Center, has made his presence felt at TUTH, which has plunged into irregularities and malpractice. [break]
As of now, two changes are already visible at TUTH. First, the bed occupancy rate has reached almost 100 percent with Dr Koirala ensuring that doctors do not turn patients away. Secondly, patients now do not need to queue up for hours to get admission as Dr Koirala has ensured that the ticket counter is open continuously from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Earlier, it was alleged that most of the doctors would divert patients admitted at TUTH to private clinics. "Instead of transferring patients to other wards, the doctors used to keep them at the emergency ward for so long that they would ultimately go for the private clinics,” Narbada Thapa, chairperson of TUTH Employees´ Association, said. “The doctors would get a fat commission for this.”
According to Thapa, Dr Koirala has instructed all doctors to move the patients on to other wards within two hours of their admission at emergency. “This has raised our bed occupancy rate and generated more revenue,” said Thapa.
Similarly, Dr Koirala has ended the practice of closing the ticket counter for lunch hour. Now, staff at the ticket counter go for lunch turn by turn, without closing the counter. “Earlier, when the counter would open after lunch hour, patients would have to queue up for their tickets,” said Dr Koirala. “This practice has now come to an end. People can buy tickets more easily.”
Dr Koirala says he will bring TUTH, which has taken a loan of Rs 660 million of late just to pay salaries, back on track by reducing unnecessary spending. “One big cause of loss is that even employees who work only during office hours are taking overtime payment,” said Dr Koirala. “I will not let them take overtime payment.”
He believes that TUTH will save at least five or six million through this move.
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