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Dr KC being treated in ICU
A day after breaking his fast-unto-death, Dr Govinda KC is undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.A day after breaking his fast-unto-death, Dr Govinda KC is undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.
Doctors said they have carefully prepared a diet plan for Dr KC before being fed on normal food.
“His heartbeats and oxygen saturation are slowly improving. It might take a week before he can resume normal activities,” said Dr Subash Acharya, chief of the ICU unit at the hospital.
“We have started feeding low amount of calorie that will be gradually increased. Also, we tried to take him out of bed and made him walk around.”
Dr KC is too weak, said Dr Acharya, adding, “Given that his White Blood Cells are still low, we have not allowed visitors, fearing infection.”
Dr KC broke his 11th fast on Tuesday night after 23 days in view of the ongoing crisis due to floods and landslides in different parts of the country. Apart from the national crisis, the decision to end the fast was also driven by the decision of political leaders to withhold the Health Profession Education Bill for now.
Govt committee yet to convene meeting
The committee formed to recommend the government on a possibility of purchasing hospitals that have already built infrastructure to run as medical colleges failed to meet on Wednesday.
The Cabinet meeting on Tuesday had agreed to form a committee under the chief secretary to recommend the government on a possibility of purchasing hospitals that have already built required infrastructure to run as medical colleges, especially the Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences.
Members of the committee include secretaries at the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and the Public Procurement Monitoring Office.
“We have not received the official letter to begin our work,” said Education Secretary Shanta Bahadur Shrestha.
The MMIHS is run by the Nepal Health Care Co-operative Limited where a majority of the 2,434 members are CPN-UML cadres. UML lawmaker Rajendra Pandey is the chairman of the MMIHS.
Dr Govinda KC had strongly objected to the parliamentary committee decision to provide leeway on the Health Profession Education Bill to establish new medical colleges inside Kathmandu Valley.
The Parliamentary Committee on Women, Children, Senior Citizens and Social Welfare made major amendments to the bill wherein a sub-clause of Clause 13 states that the decision to grant affiliation to medical colleges will be taken by the Health Profession Education Commission (HPEC) if they meet the criteria set by it.
Following Dr KC’s strong objection to the bill that seriously compromised the report of the Mathema task force, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal had offered UML lawmakers that the government would buy the MMIHS. However, UML lawmakers, including Pandey, declined the offer.