Bharatpur Cancer Hospital tense

CHITWAN, Feb 28: Bharatpur Cancer Hospital remained tense throughout Monday bringing the services to a complete standstill and leaving the patients helter-skelter following a protest against the hospital board decision to appoint a new executive director.



The protest, backed by the Young Communist League (YCL) cadres, ensued after the board meeting on Sunday took the decision to replace present incumbent Dr Bhakta Man Shrestha with Dr Laxmi Narayan Singh. But the former, who is also the member secretary of the board, termed the meeting ´unconstitutional´ and resorted to padlocking the administrative building. [break]



Batton-wielding YCL cadres on Monday stopped Dr Singh from entering the office building. He, however, managed to reach the office under police escort at around 2:45 pm but couldn´t take charge of the office amid protesting YCL men and Dr Shrestha padlocking the gate of the administrative building. Health staff, including doctors, also supported Dr Shrestha who argued that he was not even informed about the meeting.



“The board meeting should have been called by the member secretary with the consent of the president but I was not informed,” Dr Shrestha said.



Meanwhile, the board has challenged Dr Shrestha to seek legal remedy if he had any reservations about the decision. Dr Shrestha´s three-year tenure ended on September 9, 2010.



The patients and their attendants fled the hospital as YCL cadres sloganeered outside. Chuda Mani Kandel of Kathmandu, who was with a patient, said, “They (docs) should be attending the patients here. But they are sloganeering in front of their patients. It´s a shame.”



Hardly had he uttered these words, when the YCL cadres blasted him for shouting against them.



“I had to get the report of blood test of my mother for chemotherapy but no one was in the lab,” complained Rajesh Sapkota of Rupandehi.



The situation returned to normalcy later in the day when a dispute resolution committee, headed by pathology department head of the hospital Dr CB Pun, was formed. The committee has Dr Anjani Kumar Jha as Dr Singh´s representative and Dr Krishna Sagar Sharma for Dr Shrestha as members.



“We´ll urge all the political parties for settling the dispute amicably,” Dr Pun said.

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