There May Not Be Enough Health Workers to Attend to Patients
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WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 225 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 35.2 C 8.0 C Wednesday, October 07, 2020 | 21-06-2077 Nepalgunj Jumla Given its failure, Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre’s relevance in question The deputy prime minister-led centre’s role is limited to making recommendations to the Cabinet but they are often shot down by the prime minister. TIKA R PRADHAN and it ended without a proper decision. KATHMANDU, OCT 6 “After studying the situation, the committee has decided to seek propos- Before Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli als from different ministries,” said got admitted to Tribhuvan University Mahendra Guragain, member secre- Teaching Hospital for his second kid- tary of the centre, after that meeting. ney transplant on the evening of The proposals that he was referring March 2, he formed a high-level coor- to were on safety protocols to be fol- dination committee to prepare the lowed to check the spread of the virus. country for curbing the spread of the Incidentally, the day Guragain said coronavirus. that marked exactly six months since Deputy Prime Minister and Defence the Covid-19 Crisis Management Minister Ishwar Pokhrel headed it. Centre was formed. Then on March 29 when the country By the Centre member’s own admis- was on the sixth day of the nationwide sion, it has been a gross failure. lockdown, the Covid-19 Crisis “There is a tendency that the deci- Management Centre, also headed by sions of the Centre won’t be implement- the deputy prime minister, was formed ed,” a minister said after the meeting. as the implementing agency under the Once Prime Minister Oli became High-level Coordination Committee. active in public life after his success- On June 10, when the number of ful surgery, and subsequent recupera- POST PHOTO: KABIN ADHIKARI cases in the country stood at 4,364, the tion, all decisions regarding the pan- Dr Govinda KC on the 23rd day of his hunger strike at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu on Tuesday demanding improvements in public health services. This is KC’s 19th fast High-Level Coordination Committee demic have been taken by the Cabinet against anomalies in the country’s medical education sector. was dissolved and the main responsi- and the centre has now become just an bility of fighting the pandemic fell on agency to make recommendations. the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre. “After the prime minister recuper- Today, as the number of infections ated following the kidney transplant, continues to rise and Nepal has over- the Cabinet started to take decisions taken China, where the virus was first related to Covid-19 so the High-level There may not be enough health workers discovered, in the number of cases, the Coordination Committee was dis- Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre is solved,” said Education Minister nowhere to be seen. As of Tuesday, the Giriraj Mani Pokhrel, a member of number of cases stands at 90,814 while the coordination committee, but not to attend to patients, doctors warn that of China stands at 85,482. of the Centre. Its last meeting was on September 29 >> Continued on page 2 Hospitals which treat Covid-19 patients lack sufficient personal protective equipment, putting health workers at the high risk of exposure to the coronavirus. The lack of personal protective equipment is an issue in other hospi- tals in the Capital too like Bir Hospital, which has been converted into a Covid-19 hospital. “Our stock of safety gear including the personal protective equipment is insufficient even for a week, “ Dr Kedar Prasad Ceintury, the hospital director, told the Post. “We depend on the safety gear donated by social organisations.” Health workers serving in the hos- pital have complained to the Post that they are compelled to reuse masks and buy them on their own, due to the fail- ure of the administration to supply them. Around 150 health workers at the hospital have already tested posi- tive for the coronavirus, according to the hospital administration. “We are struggling to manage the human resource, as a lot of our staff are getting infected every day,” said POST FILE PHOTO Ceintury, who added that the hospital Major hospitals are running out of safety gear used by doctors and health workers. needs over 1,000 surgical masks, over 200 personal protective equipment, ARJUN POUDEL nential rise, but health workers are including N-95 masks every day. KATHMANDU, OCT 6 getting infected in rising numbers, The Department of Health Services, which is alarming,” an official at the which is responsible for arranging Dr Dinesh Kafle, executive director at Department of Health Services, told personal protective equipment and the Tribhuvan University Teaching the Post, asking not to be named, as he other safety gear to public hospitals, Hospital, was counting the number of feared retribution. “We have not been said that it had transferred the budget personal protective equipment like taking the risk seriously since the to hospitals to purchase the necessary body covers, N-95 masks, gloves, shoe beginning. A situation may arise in equipment. covers and other essentials in stock on which we will not have enough health “We have allocated the budget to the Tuesday afternoon when the Post con- workers to attend patients.” provinces and to the hospitals to buy tacted him. The Epidemiology and Disease necessary equipment including safety “If the suppliers do not supply addi- Control Division of the Health gears,” said Dr Dipendra Raman tional equipment by the end of the Ministry, which keeps records of Singh, director general at the depart- day, it will be a problem for us to send infected health workers, does not have ment. “Most hospitals buy personal health workers to the Covid-19 ward, the exact data on this since the official protective equipment on their own, and the ICU,” said Kafle. “We need in charge of maintaining it has been and we too have been supplying it to over 100 pieces of personal protective transferred. some hospitals.” equipment every day just to attend to “We are working on new software to Government officials have repeat- the Covid-19 patients.” keep the records,” an official at the edly downplayed the seriousness of Health workers, including doctors division told the Post, asking not to the situation and once said that the serving in other departments as well be named. “If you contact us after number of cases in the country would as the emergency ward, also need per- two weeks, we can provide you with not reach 100. As of Tuesday, 90,814 sonal protective equipment but owing the exact number of infected health people have tested positive with 563 to the shortage, the hospital has not workers.” deaths. In the last 24 hours, 1,551 peo- been able to provide enough quanti- Officials said that the number of ple tested positive, including 1,017 in ties to them. infected health workers, including Kathmandu Valley, according to the “This makes them risk their lives,” doctors, is over 2,000. At least three Health Ministry. The tally for said Kafle. health workers, including a doctor, Kathmandu Valley stands at 32,087. Public health experts warn that a have died of Covid-19. As of Tuesday, Public health experts, however, are rise in infection rate in health work- over 200 health workers, including not surprised by this shortage of safe- ers is a sign of another looming cata- doctors, at the Tribhuvan University ty gear in public hospitals as new strophic situation. Teaching Hospital, have tested posi- cases continue to rise colossally. “Not only are new cases on an expo- tive. The hospital administration said “I had said at the time of the budget that it has been struggling to speech that the budget allocated for continue some of its services, as health would not help in controlling a lot of health workers are test- the pandemic,” said Dr Baburam ing positive every day. Marasini, a former director at the “We shut down the neurosur- Epidemiology and Disease Control gical and neuro medicine unit Division. today as six health workers there With previous restrictions on move- got infected,” Kafle added. ment, and with the number of cases “Other six health workers, rising, much fewer patients have been including doctors, in the going to hospitals, and this has affect- emergency department, also ed revenue streams. tested positive today. We “This is also a reason for the budget disinfected the department and crunch,” said Kafle. have resumed services.” >> Continued on page 2 C M Y K WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 07, 2020 | 02 NATIONAL Butwal assembly endorses Lumbini as name of Province 5 by a two-thirds majority The provincial assembly also endorsed Deukhuri Valley in Dang as the capital of the province. GHANASHYAM GAUTAM ties, social organisations and the gen- members from the Nepali Congress RUPANDEHI, OCT 6 eral public have taken to the street in also resorted to vandalism amid dis- several places of Rupandehi to protest putes in the ruling party over the The provincial assembly meeting of the Province 5 government’s proposal name and capital of the province. Province 5 endorsed the proposal to to designate Deukhuri of Dang as the Meanwhile, in the assembly meet- name the province as Lumbini by a provincial capital. According to them, ing on Tuesday, Shankar Pokharel, majority vote on Tuesday. The meet- the proposal regarding the name and chief minister of the province, said ing also endorsed Deukhuri Valley in capital of Province 5 was registered that the government will develop Dang district as the provincial capital.