BHAKTAPUR: Bhaktapur District Hospital, the first hospital in Nepal after Bir, has come into operation after 116 years of its establishment. Patients with complex diseases and surgical treatment need ICU services very much. Bir Hospital of Nepal is considered as the first government hospital. It is said that modern medical services have been started from this hospital. The then Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher had established a 15-bed hospital named 'Chandralok Dispensary' on July 3, 1961. According to historians, this is why it was later renamed 'Bhaktapur Hospital'.
Chairman of the Hospital Development Committee, Milan Suwal, informed that the ICU service has been brought into operation for the first time from the equipment sent by the Bagmati state government, including equipment including ventilators of ICU, which have not been used for several years. The Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr. Sumitra Gautam, informed that the ICU service has been started in the hospital with a capacity of 50 beds in 2028 BS.
The government has also designated the hospital as Corona Hub Hospital. He informed that the service has been started by preparing a six-bed ICU with five ventilators and an isolation of 16 beds for keeping corona infected and isolation for 10 patients with normal corona. After the Minister of Social Development of Bagmati Pradesh was directed to manage the manpower, the hospital has brought new manpower in the contract for the operation of ICU service and one more bed and two ventilators have been connected for ICU with the financial assistance of the state government. The hospital has continued to provide all services even amid the COVID epidemic. At present, 5 people in Corona are undergoing treatment in ICU, 13 in symptoms, and 10 in isolation. Similarly, 97 people are being treated at the Electricity Authority Kharipati-based Isolation, he said.
The hospital has 24-hour emergency services, gynecology, obstetrics, and maternal safety programs. Surgery, Pediatrics, Dentistry, Dermatology, Mental Illness, Physiotherapy, Eye and Eye Examination, Health Insurance Services, Ultrasound Services. The hospital has brought its pharmacy into operation and has arranged to give a 10 percent discount on the purchase of medicines. Similarly, a one-stop crisis management center has been set up at the hospital for men and women who have been subjected to gender-based violence, said Mesu Dr. Gautam.
Similarly, the hospital has also brought free uterine operation and free maternity service into operation and also paid clinic service. The paying service has been brought into operation from 3 pm and before 9 am after the completion of the OPD service of the hospital. It has also launched video X-ray services for various complex surgeries, special organs including legs, chest, and abdomen, and video X-ray anomaly scan and telescopic operation to prevent the birth of a disabled child after 3 pm every Wednesday.
Giving information that no service is closed in Bhaktapur Hospital, he said that patients come here directly saying that the hospital does not provide services and some patients come here asking for admission in various hospitals. This is a government hospital, they did not return the patients. , Added some services. He said that there was no shortage of space for patients to undergo emergency surgery for other diseases after the COVID block came into operation. Although the hospital has the same compound, the treatment of COVID and non-COVID patients have different blocks, reducing the risk of coronavirus infection, she said, adding that the lack of space has caused many problems.