Health facilities in Bara and Parsa were flooded with people injured in Sunday’s windstorm that wreaked havoc in the two districts, killing at least 28 people. For doctors and health officials, it was tough managing the overwhelming number of patients, some of who were lying on the floor and corridors for the lack of space.

The following day onwards, the districts saw a flurry of visits from high profile politicians, who, after inspecting the affected areas reached the hospitals to enquire about the health of the injured.

“That’s when it started to become even more difficult. The entire focus shifted to VIP visits, when it should have been fixed on treating the patients,” said Dr Atulesh Chaurasia, medical superintendent at Narayani Zonal Hospital in Birgunj.

The list of visitors included Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who travelled to the disaster-hit area before heading to the Narayani Zonal Hospital.

Former prime minister and chair of ruling Nepal Communist Party Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health and Population Upendra Yadav, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, chief ministers of provinces, ministers of the federal government as well as provincial government, lawmakers of federal parliament and the provinces and bureaucrats who traveled to the districts also visited the hospitals. But medical workers said that did more harm than good.

“First, the visits meant the hospitals were turned into fortresses with security personnel all around,” said Chaurasia. “On one occasion, I was stopped [by security]. I had to produce my identity card to prove I was the chief of the hospital to enter the hospital.”

Chaurasia also pointed out how such random visits often ignore hospital protocols. On many occasions, these VIPs enter hospital premises without taking off their shoes, exposing patients to health risks, he said.

“What all of us need to understand is this increases risk for both—patients and visitors. At a time when we should be taking precautionary measures, we seem to breach basic hospital protocols,” said Chaurasiya.

Another doctor, at the Kalaiya Hospital, said he was mostly occupied with briefing the VIPs about how the hospital was coping in the wake of the disaster. “It was so stressful that I could not give much time to patients,” said Dr Tribhuvan Chandra Jha, medical superintendent at the hospital.

In the aftermath of a disaster of any kind, fear of the spread of diseases is a major concern, and doctors say it is imperative to protect the wounded from infection.  

However, Nepali politicians regularly make trips to areas affected by a tragedy, disaster experts say, and they oftentimes tend to hamper the relief and treatment process.

Damodar Adhikari, national professional officer at the health sector emergency preparedness and response of the World Health Organization’s Nepal office, reaffirmed that notion. “It’s not that leaders should not visit the disaster-hit areas and patients, but certain restrictions in certain places such as hospitals should be put in place so that patients can receive treatment unhindered,” Adhikari, who has the experience of working in disaster areas, told the Post.

Dr Bibek Kumar Lal, director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division under the Department of Health Service, said authorities concerned have failed to learn from past incidents of disaster.

“There has to be a proper mechanism of disaster response and it seems no one has given much thought to it,” said Lal, who visited the disaster-hit districts on Tuesday. “Are we helping the health workers by visiting the hospitals or obstructing their work?”