The nationwide strike of doctors has hit the patients of Lamjung Community Hospital. Both doctors and health workers at the hospital halted their works on Tuesday to show solidarity with the Nepal Medical Association’s (NMA) protest against the government’s decision of September 18 to introduce a law to check medical malpractices.  

Lamjung Community Hospital receives up to 300 patients daily. The shutting down of out-patient services greatly affected the patients on Tuesday, said Yubaraj Devkota, the hospital’s administrative chief.

The hospital’s emergency ward, however, was operational.

The NMA has expressed strong reservation to the Cabinet decision to bring out a law that would require doctors to pay compensation if their patients died as a result of medical malpractice. It has enforced an indefinite shutdown of hospitals and clinics across the country to press the government into withdrawing the decision.