Waited for three hours but returned without treatment

Tuk Bahadur Nepali of Baglung Municipality-12 reached Dhawalagiri Hospital at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning so that he could see the doctor immediately. After an excruciating pain in his stomach from gallstone, he went to the hospital for relief but had to instead suffer.

After standing in queue for two hours, he finally got time to meet the surgeon general with the foreign service ticket, he barely got. After the health examination and consultation, the doctor recommended him for a video x-ray.

People have to go to the ticket office again and stand in queue to pay the bill for the video x-ray. After standing in the crowd for hours, Tuk Bahadur Nepali got his turn, but the staff turned him away from the window, saying, "There is no video x-ray today." Nepali said that, the staff refused to cut the bill saying that the daily quota of 50 people assigned to video x-rays has already been full. 

"This thing was not informed to us earlier, then suddenly we were told there will be not be any video x-ray today", he lamented.

The people say that it is the negligence of the hospital to return the patient without treatment.  Leela Karki from Baglung-1, who was also standing in the queue with him, looked restless seeing the mismanagement in the hospital. She mentioned that they had to face a lot of trouble while taking tokens, making tickets, waiting for doctors, making bills and taking medicine.

"I haven't received the ticket for two hours, when will I see the doctor, when will I get treatment?", Karki said. She went to the hospital for a health check-up with a gynecologist. She complains that even the staff in the ticket office did not make the service fast.

Tara Sapkota from Baglung-3, also reached the hospital for her son, Devendra's treatment. She also did not get a video x-ray of her son. "They made me sit in queue for hours and then returned, saying there is no video x-ray", she stated, "If the service cannot be provided, they should have informed me at the beginning, they cannot do whatever they want."

Other patients who were queued for hours, for the treatment were also dissatisfied with the hospital's service delivery. They complained that the hospital management was ignoring the problems of the patients. Ajita Pant, assistant health worker of the radiology department in the hospital, informed that only 50 patients get video X-rays per day.

"Doctors should not send more than 50 patients to see them. We did not know about the issue of the first collecting tickets and then sent them back later. The management should start from the ticket office," she said. Dr. Prashun Ghimire is working as a radiologist in the hospital. Due to lack of manpower in the said department, the strict pressure is not there. 

The medical superintendent of the hospital, Shailendra Vik Pokharel, said that there was some inadequacy in the management due to the high number of patients on Sunday. "There is a problem of lack in manpower, but, we have already brought this issue to the relevant parties several times. The hearing has not been done", he added. 

Mesu Pokharel said that in order to end the situation of having to stand in queues and crowds in the hospital, she said that they are going to manage the skilled and agile manpower in technology and that the service delivery was not smooth because it took time for the employees to get used to the new software provided by the Gandaki state government.

"We have made a plan to improve the counter, and there is a need to increase manpower in the radiology department aswell, if the number of patients continue to increase like this, one radiologist will not be able to handle all by themself", he said. We will move towards making the service more effective, we will correct the mistakes."

There are 16 specialist doctors and 6 medical officers in this sub-regional level hospital. Only 11 specialists and 4 medical officers are working in the hospital. Most of them are doctors who have scholarship contracts.