A cleaning campaign has been initiated at the country's oldest hospital, the Bir Hospital, from Sunday.
The hospital with a history of more than a century is also infested by pollution and lack of sanitation. It is known as one of the filthy and stinking hospitals. Although the hospital has around 100 toilets, these are not usable. Filthy water flows out from these toilets at night after they get filled up spreading foul smell all around. The hospital produces more than a truck-full of trash every day.
Minister of State for Health and Population Padma Kumari Aryal initiated the month-long 'Hospital clean-up campaign' Sunday as part of the government's effort to have full sanitation condition at the government health institutions.
"Let us become the part of this campaign with the thinking that all the government hospitals are own properties. We should start from ourselves. We will see the real change in one month from now," she said.
The Minister of State for Health said that the hospital's internal cleaning was equally necessary as was its external cleaning.
Vice Chancellor of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) Prof Dr Ganesh Bahadur Gurung on the occasion vowed to fulfill the objective of the campaign although cleaning the hospital was a challenge as it is located in the heart of the capital and is visited by a large number people every day.
Hopital's director Prof Dr Bhupendra Basnet said the hospital has seen much improvement of late and the patients are getting better services. He added that the infrastructure of the hospital has been improved, it has been painted and sanitation improved. Basnet further noted that technology and equipment has also been added in recent days.
The stairs, floors and walls of the hospital building are dirty. The rooms are also not clean at many places. The hospital is not clean as expected even though 150 cleaning staffs clean it every day.
Around 3,000 patients visit the Bir Hospital everyday from nook and cranny of the country while 2,000 more people visit the hospital for one or the other purposes.
According to the WHO, 10 persons succumb to infections out of every 100 patients in the developing countries while less than seven persons died of infection in the developed countries.
Rajaram Acharya, a security person working for 24 years in the hospital, said though there used to be an odor immediately after the entry to the hospital but this problem has decreased gradually.
The Ministry has coordinated with Khem's Cleaning to launch the sanitation campaign in the Bir Hospital and Trauma Center in every 15 days.
Khem Sharma coming from Australia and his 15 volunteers is working in the sanitation mission along with 10 volunteers of the hospital. Sitaram Kattel has also joined the cleanliness campaign as the sanitation ambassador.
