As Health Minister Gagan Thapa prepares for his four-day visit to China, he has expedited talks with various stakeholders to address the demands of fasting Dr Govinda KC.

Thapa is scheduled to visit China on Tuesday for the ninth Global Conference on Health Promotion to be held in Shanghai.

If the doctor’s demands are not addressed before the minister leaves and the government also does not convince him to end his protest, Dr KC would be on his indefinite hunger strike for 15 days by the time Thapa returns.

Minister Thapa has been supporting the demands of Dr KC since his first fast in 2012. Among Thapa’s key initiatives as a parliamentarian are filing a motion of public importance in the House against Lokman Singh Karki, the now suspended chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, whose ouster is a key demand of the fasting orthopaedic surgeon.

After being appointed the health minister though, many believe Thapa has failed to do enough to address his call for reforms in the country’s medical education. In the ninth fast staged when Thapa was the minister, very few of the demands were addressed and Dr KC himself called off the protest “not to inconvenience the public during the festivals”.

“I will meet the prime minister on Sunday and urge him to address the demands of Dr KC,” said Minister Thapa. “I am also in talks with other line ministers and hope to make headway by Monday.”

It is learnt that Thapa will ask the PM to instruct the concerned bodies to implement the fee structure proposed by the Mathema Commission. Regarding the appointment of the dean at the Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine, there have been talks on amending the TU regulations to include a clear provision of “seniority” for choosing the candidates.

Dr KC is against the recent appointment of Dr KP Singh as the IoM dean. Dr Singh was not the senior most professor among those considered for the job. It was Dr Jagdish Agrawal, whom KC wanted as the dean.

On Saturday, a protest march was led from the TU Teaching Hospital to the prime minister’s residence to press the government to address Dr KC’s demands.

Health ‘deteriorates’

The health condition of Dr KC further deteriorated on the seventh day of his indefinite hunger strike on Saturday. “Dr KC is feeling weak and complaining of persistent muscle cramps, dizziness, occasional chest pain and palpitation,” a health update released on Saturday by Dr Pradeep Kumar Shrestha read. “His blood pressure is on lower side and needs supplemental oxygen intermittently. In view of the current medical condition, he may develop life threatening complications any time and may need emergency medical intervention.”