“We can´t admit her here as it´s a complex case. Please take her elsewhere and bring her back after the strike is over,” a medical officer on duty told one of the young women, a daughter of the 56-year-old kidney patient. [break]
The patient has been getting dialyzed twice a week at TUTH for the past two and half years and has not been taken anywhere else over that period. “She was dialyzed here last (Monday) night but she developed diarrhea and other complications this morning and now they refuse to admit her,” the daughter complained.
The daughter tried her best to persuade the medical officers to take her mother in, arguing that TUTH had her entire medical history, but to no avail. She was left helpless and unable to decide where to take her ailing mother. “They should not carry out such strikes at a hospital. We live on rent (their permanent home is in Hetauda) and are managing somehow with much difficulty. Not everyone can afford private nursing homes,” she fumed.
A ninth-grader girl was brought to the ward all the way from Ilam a little earlier. Doctors gave her some intravenous medication and told her guardian to take her home and to another hospital for follow-up. Patients who came after 3 p.m. were not even that lucky. They found the emergency ward shut as TUTH has now stopped taking in any patient.
The hospital stopped taking indoor patients from March 15 because of protests by doctors alleging that post-graduate entrance examinations conducted on March 13 and 14 were rigged by Dean of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Dr Arun Sayami and demanding their cancellation.
The hospital has been treating only patients admitted before March 15. Those who have recovered since have been discharged and only 188 out of the total of 482 beds are occupied as of Tuesday morning, according to Nursing Director Jamuna Sayami. “Generally, around 395 beds are occupied,” Head of Medical Records Department Kumar KC disclosed. KC said around 1,500 patients, including those in OPD and emergency, are treated at the hospital daily.
“We decided to shut the emergency ward after three in the afternoon as services can´t be provided through just a few medical officers,” Director of TUTH Dr Keshav Prasad Singh conceded.
Govt apathy
Services at the hospital have been affected for the past eight days but there has been no intervention by authorities concerned. Tribhuvan University (TU) formed a six-member probe committee under Dean of the Management Faculty Dr Govinda Prasad Acharya on March 19.
But the agitating Free Students´ Union (FSU) at the Maharajgunj Campus and Nepal Resident Doctors Association (NRDA) have rejected the legitimacy of the committee, saying it was formed without any discussion with them.
“We don´t normally intervene at TUTH, which is supervised through TU,” spokesperson of the Education Ministry Janardan Nepal said, adding that he didn´t know TUTH was completely shut until he got this scribe´s call. “We will discuss about intervention measures tomorrow,” Nepal added.
Breaking ice
The warring factions themselves met for the first time since the entrance exams to find a solution, given the lack of government intervention. “Dean (Dr Sayami) was also present at the meeting and he acknowledged he himself told the probe committee that the exams were not held in the right environment and should be canceled,” TUTH Director Dr Singh said.
But the agitating doctors are adamant on the resignation of all officials at the Dean´s Office and have sought time to discuss among themselves whether to return to duty, before turning up for another meeting at 11a.m. Wednesday, according to Dr Singh.
prem@myrepublica.com
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