NAGARIK
Team Hospital in Pokhara, one of the largest medical institutes in the region, has been on lockdown for the past two weeks. After previous agreements with the NGO Human Development and Community Service (HDCS) expired, hospital employees padlocked the gates, demanding a guarantee for continued employment.
The hospital was started by an international organisation called TEAM in 1969 and handed over to HDCS five years ago after it was ruled that international foundations should not be involved in day-to-day operations of such institutes.
Team has served the people in the hills of far-western Nepal for the past 45 years. Hundreds of patients from neighbouring Dadheldhura, Bajhang, Achham, and Bajura would visit the hospital everyday for checkups. Now most of them are stranded and those who can afford are forced to make longer journeys to Kailali and Kanchanpur for even minor illnesses.
“The hospital gates were locked when I reached there,” says Surendra Bohara of Bithhad. Bohara has no money to travel to the plains for treatment.
There are already reports of vandalism, equipment worth millions have gone missing, and medicine supplies from the markets in Kailali have also been disrupted. But local leaders say the government still hasn’t shown much interest in their plight.