Snakebite treatment centre awaiting doctors for last six years

Barahathawa (Sarlahi): It has been six years since the door of the intensive care unit of the snakebite treatment centre at Nawalpur in Sarlahi padlocked.

The treatment room at the centre is equipped with an ICU and a ventilator.

However, there are no skilled doctors to use the facilities for treatment.

For the last six years, the treatment center has repeatedly called vacancy for skilled doctors, but no doctor has been recruited yet.

Centre Chair Uddhab Paudel said that sometimes there was nominal application in response to the vacancy notice while in some instances the doctors selected for recruitment did not turn up to take the appointment.

A big number of patients are visiting the center every day during the snakebite season.

The critical cases of snakebite need to be treated with the help of ICU and ventilator immediately. Chair Paudel said although the equipment was ready at the treatment center, the patients had to be referred elsewhere due to lack of human resources to operate them.

Jagarnath Yadav, health assistant and in-charge of the centre, said, “There are several cases of deaths on the way. In 2075 BS, the Centre had arranged ICU and ventilator for the treatment of critical patients of snakebite.

Centre Chair Paudel complained that ICU and ventilator had to be kept without use for six years due to lack of skilled human resources.