RAJBIRAJ, JULY 20: Gajendra Narayan Singh Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital in Rajbiraj, Saptari, is in a sorry state with concerned authorities turning a blind eye to the problems faced by the hospital. Only one doctor is available at the hospital although it has a quota for 18 specialist doctors.

Department of Health has neither been able to fulfill all the vacant positions nor provide necessary health equipments.

As a result, the zonal hospital has turned into just a facility to refer patients to other hospitals.

The hospital was established over four and half decades ago.

It has been nearly a decade that the hospital has remained without specialist doctors, civil society member Thansingh Bhansali said.

The hospital is reeling under the shortage of doctors as only one consultant physician doctor is available at present, according to him.

Hospital records show that no serious surgeries other than maternity cases have been carried out in years. The hospital has no surgeon.

The hospital, which is supposed to provide health services to six districts, does not have a gynecologist and pediatrician.

People are deprived of many types of medical services in lack of specialist doctors, said Surya Narayan Mahato, a staff at the hospital. The government spends millions on maternal and neonatal health. "How can locals get benefited from government's spending when newborns and mothers are deprived from basic health facilities?" a local questioned.

We have requested the department to fulfill all positions to make the hospital fully operational, administration section of the hospital said, adding that the locals have been suffering due to negligence of the department.

Medicine scarcity
According to the store section of the hospital, it has been running without essential medicines for the last seven months.

As a result, locals are deprived of essential medicines distributed by the government free of cost.

The hospital has time and again requested the ministry, department, and the regional health directorate to provide essential medicines, chief of store section of the hospital Manoj Kumar Yadav said. “But the authority concerned has not supplied medicines.”

Zonal hospital distributes 70 types of medicines for free to citizens, Yadav said, adding that the hospital has not even a single medicine available in the store. Extremely poor people who cannot afford medicines suffer the most due to the unavailability of medicines, he said.

 
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