"Taking advantage of being senior doctors, they used to bring patients from nursing homes and admit them here as academic cases," said Narbada Thapa, chairman of TUTH Employees Association, adding, "The hospital had to bear all expanses for the treatment of the botched cases." [break]
With his appointment as director of TUTH, Dr Bhagwan Koirala had stopped the admission of patients as academic cases, especially patients brought from nursing homes. Thapa said that the association had requested Dr Koirala to stop such practices that had depleted the hospital financially.
TUTH is the teaching hospital of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and academic cases are required to teach medical students. But Thapa said senior doctors have been taking undue advantage of this loophole.
"They fleeced the patients at the private centers as much as they could and transferred them to the government hospital after their families become bankrupt," an employee preferring not to be named said adding, "When they botch up a case they used to bring it here for treatment free of cost until the patient is cured or dies."
He said that relatives used to keep mum on condition of the free treatment.
Chairman Thapa said that this is one reason senior doctors were hostile towards the measures adopted by Dr Koirala.
The hospital has been able to save millions through the scrapping of such practices and the credit goes to Dr Koirala, said Thapa. "It became extremely painful when some of the leaders and clean professors started justifying the patient referrals," Dr Koirala wrote in his statement on his abrupt resignation.
Dinesh Bastola, assistant professor at TUTH, said that senior professors had been completely unsupportive of Dr Koirala, which was very unfortunate for the institution. "We must recognize the changes that have happened at the hospital under Dr Koirala´s leadership," said Bastola, adding, "It has become hard for some of our friends to acknowledge the changes brought about by him."
Senior doctors also used to skip off to the private centers during duty hours, something which Dr Koirala had put a stop to. Doctors also used to take overtime allowances from the hospital, and this also was scrapped.
Meanwhile, hospital employees and locals of Maharajgung area staged a sit-in protest at the hospital premises to create pressure not to accept Dr Koirala´s resignation.
Representatives of several social organizations and clubs, who reached the hospital to express solidarity with Dr Koirala´s demands, urged the government to fulfill those demands immediately.
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