When Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli decided that to go under knife for his renal transplant for the second time, everyone in the country had unequivocally thought that he would fly abroad for having such a major surgery. Instead, he opted to have his kidney transplant done in the nation's good old Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) surprising many in the country, including some of his own colleagues in the party and the government. Even until now, the common trend among our high profile leaders and minister is whenever they are in need of health care services, even for a minor disease, let alone the serious ailments, they will invariably fly abroad and visit renowned health centres. What is more, they would even pocket money from the government coffers to get the treatment done at foreign health centres. However, PM Oli's decision has helped in bucking this trend, evoking widespread praise for his courageous decision.

It has now become apparent that the PM's successful kidney transplant at TUTH has sent positive message among the high profile as well as common people that the nation's health centres. The performance of the TUTH doctors has served well in clearing deep-rooted wrong beliefs among our people, especially the well-heeled people, that undergoing surgery or receiving healthcare for serious looking diseases at Nepali health centres are fraught with dangers, for they are incapable of providing services for serious diseases and health problems. It will certainly encourage many of them to seek treatment at the country's health institutions, which would provide their services relatively at a much lower fee than that of charged by the foreign hospitals.

Apart from sending positive vibes about the capability of our hospitals, the treatment imparted to the PM has also made our team of health experts, who operated on the PM, quite jubilant. The decision of the PM and subsequent successful surgery has boosted the morale of the team of doctors at TUTH, who has now become a cynosure in the Nepal's health sector. The team has shown that they have all required expertise to deal with the cases that are considered very challenging ones such as the one suffered by the PM. Following the successful treatment, people must now have started reposing their faith and trust on our home-grown doctors. The PM's treatment has also brought another aspect of out health centres to fore: despite successful treatment to the PM, many of our health centres are in dire need of modern equipment and upgrading to become able to keep pace with the demand of changing time.

Even as our PM is currently recuperating at his official residence, his decision to undergo kidney transplant at the country's hospital has generated high hopes in country's medical spheres. The management of many health centres such as TUTH and Bir Hospital must have started feeling that they would now receive more opportunities to serve the high profile as well as common people suffering from serious health problems. On the other, the VIPs and VVIPs of the nation are likely to be encouraged to seek all health treatment at home instead of flying abroad, thus giving much required financial and confidence boost to our health centres. The PM has shown them the way, now they just need to follow it for the sake of nation's health centres and health experts.