By Shaligram Nepal

Chitwan, Dec. 2: Minister for Health and Population, Bhanubhakta Dhakal has said that his office would not endorse any ill practices that are prevalent in the health sector.
Addressing a program held after inspection of Bharatpur Hospital, Dhakal said, “With the greed of commission, hospitals are buying unnecessary instruments, for operation of which the hospital cannot afford space and manpower.”
Dhakal said that he would strive to end the trend of hospitals buying needless instruments for the sake of commission.
The government is working to make medical treatment affordable, he added.
“The problem of inadequacies that the citizens face due to poor economic condition will now come to an end,” said Dhakal. “We will make sure that the government is always there for the poor.”
We have made an arrangement to provide health services by utilising the government allocated budget, Dhakal said.
“The government is all set to deduct salaries of those who omit their duties and travel abroad in the name of health seminars,” said Dhakal.
Travel allowances will not be provided to those who travel overseas. The budget allocated for travelling will instead be spent on treatment of poor and helpless citizens, the Minister said.
Dhakal also informed that he had visited the district by himself for the first-hand inspection of hospitals so that it would be easier to identify and solve the problems.
“Many hospitals in Nepal need to be improved and their services needs to be developed. The hospital administrations should introduce clear plans for it,” said Dhakal.
“Even though big hospitals of Kathmandu and Chitwan have been providing services to the patients, a sustainable plan for the development of their services seems to be lacking,” the Health Minister said.
The issue of same doctors providing services of different qualities in government and private hospitals is not new.
“There’s a huge gap in services doctors provide in a government hospital and in his private clinic,” said Dhakal.
If the doctors can provide excellent service in their private clinics, what is stopping them form offering quality service in government hospitals, he asked.
Dhakal also called the doctors to end their habit of providing different range of services. Existence of politics in hospital development committees formed for functioning of hospitals had given rise to problems in health services, he said.
“Before demanding to establish hospital development committees, we must look into the problems that yesterday’s committees had invited.”
Minister Dhakal said that after being transferred to the health ministry, he was in a learning phase and he would gradually solve the problems prevailing in the health sector.
Former chairman of Bharatpur Hospital and member of state parliament Bijaya Subedi, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Sriram Tiwari, former medical superintendent Krishna Prasad Poudel, Dr. Bhoj Raj Adhikari spoke at the programme.
There are over 600 beds in the hospital. Bharatpur hospital also provides maximum maternity service in the country after Paropakar Maternity and women’s hospital of Kathmandu.