Ilam Municipality planning to establish medical college

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Aug 19 : Ilam Municipality on Thursday shared how it was working to develop  Ilam Hospital as a medical college (Health Science Academy) to deliver health facilities to more than 1 million people living in the four districts of the former Mechi zone and parts of Tehrathum and impart medical education.

Speaking at a program organized in Kathmandu, Mayor Kedar Thapa informed that the municipality could arrange hundreds of Ropanis of land in various places within the municipality for the academy. 

He also informed that the municipality had formed a Finance and Land Management Support Committee to arrange resources for the planned academy and had requested the 

Federal Ministry of Health and Population and Province 1’s Ministry of Health for help.

The municipality has held multiple rounds of discussions with many experts for the academy and has received many recommendations, Mayor Thapa said. 

Some of the recommendations received are that the local government needs to upgrade Ilam Hospital into a 300-bed teaching hospital, construct necessary infrastructure and coordinate with different political parties, agencies, provincial and federal governments, national and international donors, civil society organizations, other health institutions, and legal stakeholders, Thapa said.

Former Prime Minister and respected leader of the ruling CPN (Unified Socialist)  Jhala Nath Khanal, former chairman of the Constituent Assembly and deputy leader of the UML parliamentary party in the House of Representatives Subas Nembang, Nepali Congress leader and former Health Minister Kul Bahadur Gurung also spoke at the event assuring their support for the project.

Lawmakers representing Ilam, local level chiefs and deputy chiefs, politicians, doctors, businessmen,  civil servants, journalists, and others who have been living in Kathmandu were present at the program.