Kathmandu, October 19 :
The Bir Hospital emergency ward has a tragic story. It has a bed capacity of 20 patients but daily droves of “unclaimed” patients are brought in and in October alone two such patients died of starvation.
Fulmaya Rai, 50, was brought to the emergency ward of Bir Hospital by a passer-by when she met a traffic accident nearly a month ago. She stayed in the ward for 16 days. None of her relatives came to see her. Other patients and doctors fed her from time to time. But she died of starvation on October 8 and the police cremated her body.
Another man in his 50’s whose identity could not be revealed also died of starvation. That was on October 6 and was the second death in the emergency ward due to starvation. In the Bir emergency ward, many patients stay unattended to. The doctors and the staffers collect money and feed them off and on.
A total of 174 cases with no relatives to take care have been reported in the past six months, according to data provided by the hospital. As per the rule, the patients are kept for a maximum of 24 hours and then referred to other wards after providing primary treatment.Those with relatives shift the patients to the referred wards but those ‘unclaimed’ patients stay put in the emergency ward. Other wards of the hospital refuse to admit such patients due to lack of manpower to take care of them.
The emergency ward of Bir Hospital can take care of just 20 patients. But it sees 200 cases a day.
Dr Tirthendra Khadka, medical officer in the emergency ward, said there have been cases when patients were treated on benches.
“Due to such problems, the patients have not been able to get proper treatment and the doctors cannot perform well,” said Dr Khadka. “We cannot throw them out on moral and humanitarian grounds. Nor can we accommodate them.”
Dr Jeevan KC of the Surgical ward said that the wards refuse to admit such patients as there is nobody who would provide them timely medicine and feed them on time. “At least they need extra help to spoon-feed them and buy the medicine from the shop which cannot be done by the staff,” said Dr KC.
The emergency ward is manned by 10 personnel and it caters to around 200 patients daily.
There is a local volunteer organisation which is supposed to take care of such patients but the doctors said that the organisation hardly shows its presence.
Professor Dr Damodar Prasad Pokhrel, medical superintendent of Bir Hospital, said that the hospital management has a separate fund for such patients but the inflow of such patients is increasing with each passing day.
The Himalayan Times
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