Two days after breaking his sixth hunger strike, senior orthopaedic surgeon at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) Dr Govinda KC has threatened to go on next round of hunger strike if the government fails to implement the past agreements.

Dr KC had ended his sixth hunger strike on Sunday after signing an 11-point agreement with the government on reforming the Medical Health Education Policy. 

On the deal signed on Saturday night before Dr KC broke his fast, the government had agreed to sanction the deal signed with the surgeon by the first Cabinet meeting after the agreement.

Angered by the government’s languid approach to implement the agreement, Dr KC said that the ill-intention of the government to back down from the agreement may force him to resort to hunger strike again. He alleged that the “mafias have bought the entire Cabinet” including the prime minister.

“There is no doubt that all the achievements gained so far will go astray if we simply listened to the assurances of the dishonest politicians in this chaotic situation. I will give them an ultimatum to implement the pact until Thursday. If they don’t, I will go on hunger strike from Friday,” KC told the Post.

According to Dr KC’s ultimatum, the Cabinet should take ownership of the 11-point pact within the next three days and direct the concerned authorities to implement the agreement on formation of medical education commission, no of seats, fee and admission on merit basis. 

The 11-point agreement between Dr KC and Govt

1)    Form Health Profession Education Commission in the next Cabinet meeting. This Commission will  

    (a) Formulate Health Profession Policy; (b) Will not renew LoI of Medical Nursing and Dental colleges inside Kathmandu Valley;

(c) Gradually decrease the MBBS seats to 135 then 115 and 100 in next three years; (d) Set Rs 3.5 million fee ceiling for MBBS course; (e) Foreigners should also sit for common entrance examination. For Nepali students they should mandatorily sit for the common entrance before obtaining No Objection Letter and Eligibility Certificate from Ministry of Education and Nepal Medical Council

2)    Form a legal commission to probe abuse of authority in KU and TU

3)    Form a ‘search’ committee without political representation to appoint office bearers in universities and other health councils.

4)    Make the Post-Graduate education free and implement it from this session

5)    Take action against owners of Janaki Medical College and properly manage students

6)    Government medical college should have 50 percent free seats that should be eventually increased up to 75 percent

7)    The government should probe into the extended programme of Dev Daha and Birat Medical College and take action against KU officials.

8)    Halt the process of establishing Medical University

9)    The ratio of government to private medical colleges should be at least at 1:3

10)    Dispatch a letter to KU stating the representation of professors in KU senate.

11)    All the above mentioned agreements will remain accordingly, while the rest will be implemented from the action plan endorsed by the Cabinet