Dr. Mukti Shrestha
BP Memorial Health Institute & Research Center, established under B.P. Smriti Hospital, is a well-established health institution for imparting health education at an affordable cost. Its main aim is to produce skilled human resources and conduct research in the field of health. It offers PCL Nursing (Staff Nurse) and PCL in General Medicine (HA), affiliated to CTEVT.
Dr. Mukti Shrestha is the Chairman at BP Memorial Health Institute & Research Center. He is also the President at Nepal Health Workers Association. He opines that neither can the government provide sufficient doctors and health workers to rural areas nor have the private sector interest to go there. He shared his view on growing depression of rural people over scarcity of health practitioner in geographically trodden areas. Excerpts:
How is the current status of health sector in Nepal?
The condition of health in Nepal is unreasonably miserable. The people are deprived of their rights of getting even basic health facilities. The private hospitals have concentrated on city areas and the government has not provided a sufficient number of doctors and health workers in rural and remote areas. In some places, there are only hospitals but not equipment and doctors. Similarly, in some places there are doctors but no equipment at all. Most doctors deny going to remote and rural areas. According to the WHO standard, the government should allocate a minimum of 10% of its budget to health sector, but it is only 4.4%, which is appallingly low. It clearly shows that the health sector has not been included in the priority list of the government. In fact, the government should take the responsibility of health and education for the people of the country that advocates socialism, but the reality is disastrous.
What was the major aim of establishing B.P. Memorial Health Institute?
BP Koirala had an ideal aim that assurance of healthy life for the citizens is the responsibility of the government, which is one of the fundamental rights of people. So, solidify the dream of BP Koirala, the hospital was established as per Cooperative System that bestows power on common people who can be shareholders of the institution.
The hospital provides all sorts of services, such as emergency, ICU and diagnosis. Similarly, as its academic program, it operates HA and staff nurse classes with 40 students in each program. The college has managed well-qualified and prodigious teaching faculty. Therefore, our products are easily employable in the global market. As other features, the college has modern buildings with spacious and well-furnished classrooms, well-equipped laboratories and a resourceful library. The students are provided a range of facilities, ranging from co-curricular activities, extra-curricular activities to exceptional opportunities to expose their talents through inter-school competitions.
The CTEVT aims to produce medium level human resources and has contributed to producing such human resources in a large number. In your opinion, what sort of things should be improved by the CTEVT to acquire an acclaimed reputation?
The CTEVT has made praiseworthy contributions to the preparation of medium level human resources in the country. It has extended its institutional branch and programs throughout the country, but due to lack of required human resources for supervision and monitoring in its constituent and affiliated colleges, the quality of education has emasculated. We’ve found irregularities and negligence in some of the institutions due to lack of inspection, monitoring, supervision, and direction to its subordinate offices and colleges. So, the government should make proper frameworks to track the activities of those affiliated colleges in order to make their programs more effective than before.
The government has proclaimed a concept of 70% -30% for technical and non-technical education impartation respectively in the country. In your opinion, what initiatives should the government make to solidify its aim and what it should do to improve the health sector in Nepal?
The government should give priority to extension, establishment and operation of technical and vocational institutions in order to accomplish its target. Similarly, in order to improve health condition of Nepalese people, the government should fulfill the standard of WHO and allocate at least 10% of national budget for health programs across the country. Similarly, the government should take the responsibility of the provision and guarantee of health facilities that are delivered to the citizens. The health facilities should be made easily available and reliable even in remote and rural areas. The number of doctors and hospitals should be increased and managed for effective upshots.
What message would you like to convey at last?
Health is the greatest wealth of an individual in particular and of nation at large. The citizens with a healthy mind and healthy body can contribute to the nation with their skills. In addition, such citizens can lead a happy and salubrious life. Therefore, the state should provide and guarantee all sorts of health facilities to its citizens at free of cost. If the government guarantees all health facilities to its citizens with transparency, people need not accumulate money for their health care.
