A third of beds at Bir Hospital gone due to staff shortage

Poor patients visiting the country’s oldest hospital from across Nepal are the hardest hit.

Last week, Khadka Bahadur Budathoki, a liver patient from ward 5 of Champadevi Rural Municipality of Okhaldhunga district, was found lying on a metal bench outside the emergency ward of Bir Hospital. The 61 year-old, who was a regular patient of the hospital, recounted how his children brought him to the Bir emergency for treatment, only to be advised by doctors to take him to some other hospital due to lack of intensive care at the time.