Health equipment, lab lying unused

By Our Correspondent,Tamghas, June 9: When the country was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a remote western district of Gulmi, too, fell prey to it.  Patients began showing up unexpectedly. 

Helicopters began landing at Chidichaur, Tamghas, among other places in the district, to airlift the patients to Chitwan and Kathmandu for treatment. Even after sending samples to Butwal and Kathmandu for test, it used to take weeks to get the test results. 

Considering this, a meeting of the District Disaster Management Committee decided on June 13, 2020, to establish a lab to test and identify the disease. 

In the meeting, it was decided to allocate Rs. 1.5 million for each municipality and Rs. 1 million for each rural municipality to purchase essential equipment and manage manpower for the lab.  

The then Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali inaugurated the COVID-19 laboratory on June 15, 2020 organising a ceremony. About Rs. 10 million was spent on laboratory materials including PCR machines worth about Rs. 5 million. Rs. 7 million had been spent twice to operate of the laboratory. But these days, the PCR machines and other medical equipment lie unused. The ward office of Ward No. 9 of Resunga Municipality is being operated from the laboratory building.

Abandoned ICU

The five-bed ICU with two ventilators has been lying idle in the Gulmi Hospital for a year now.

Out of the allocated budget of Rs. 20 million during the time of pandemic, by last year, Rs. 1.5 million was spent for building the infrastructure and fixing equipment, but the important health equipment has remained useless since then. 

The ICU with ventilators is not being used in the hospital where hundreds of district residents reach to receive treatment. 

Making matters worse, years of improper management because of lack of specialised manpower has rendered them almost unusable. 

However, Gopal Prasad Pandey, Chairman of the Hospital Development Committee, admit that the lab did not come into use after the pandemic receded. 

He claimed that while antigen testing is quick, easy, and less expensive, PCR had recently become pricey and is no longer used.

According to Pandey, the operation of the ICU could not be carried out due to a lack of skilled manpower.

In the Gulmi Hospital, there are 59 permanent positions. 

However, there are currently only 17 persons employed. 

The hospital has 10 permanent positions for specialists but only one specialist physician has been working there.