Kathmandu. The poor, poor and backward classes have been hit the hardest after the government announced a two-day holiday in the health sector in view of the fuel crisis.
The government has decided to give a two-day holiday on Saturday and Sunday in government offices, banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and educational institutions to reduce the consumption of fuel by reducing the use of vehicles due to the ongoing war in the Middle East and the Gulf.
Initially, the government had directed the health institutions to operate the outpatient service (OPD) on Sunday, but after the protest of 14 organizations involving health workers, the Ministry of Health has implemented the facility of weekly leave for them even on Sunday. The patients are the most affected due to the compulsion of doctors to get regular check-ups, go to distant hospitals for treatment and consult specialist doctors by showing laboratory test reports.
Apart from this, the patients who reached the city for health treatment on Friday are not able to get the full check-up done, so they are compelled to stay in the city for two days on Saturday and Sunday at expensive expenses.
The Nepal Korea Friendship Hospital in Bhaktapur used to provide services through specialist doctors on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but now they will get specialist services related to orthopaedics only on Tuesdays and Thursdays as Sunday is a public holiday. This is just one example. The service delivery schedule of public hospitals across the country has been affected.
Doctor will not be found at 9 a.m.
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The office has been opened for five days instead of six days and the office hours have been fixed from 9 am to 5 pm. However, in most hospitals across the country, doctors are not available in the OPD ward from 9 am. On Monday, doctors were not present in the nose, ear and throat ward of BP Koirala Children’s Eye Hospital in Jadibuti to examine the patient till 9:30 am. The only doctor present was also responsible for seeing the X-ray and lab reports of the patient for surgery.
The doctors of the government hospitals do not attend the OPD service from 9 am in the government hospital as they also work in the private sector run hospitals and have to run private clinics. They are not even sure how many months the office hours will be continued due to the shortage of fuel, so they have not shown any interest in managing the time of service in the private sector hospitals or their clinics.
