The services at the Beni Hospital here have been affected due to the shortage of human resources and infrastructure. The 50-bed hospital has been upgraded to 64 beds facility but lacks a matching number of medical staff and facilities. It is operating from temporary infrastructures and contractual staff.

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The construction of the hospital new block has not been completed even five years after the hospital was upgraded to a 50-bed facility from a 15-bed capacity. Even the required medical staff have not been managed yet.

It has set up temporary structures at different locations for operating the ICU, dialysis, COVID-19 and paediatric units.

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Most of the doctors and medical staff working at the hospital are hired on a contract basis, Chief Physician Jitendra Kandel said. “Nine doctors and six staff nurses have to look after six wards. The doctors and nurses are overwhelmed with the workload as not all the posts for doctors and nurses have been filled,” he said. There are a total of 123 allotted posts for doctors and other medical staff at the hospital but it is currently operating only with 15 of them.

An intensive care unit and ventilators at Beni Hospital have yet to come into full operation for want of human resources, said the hospital.

The hospital has established a five-bed ICU and two ventilators at a cost of Rs 17 million provided by the Ministry of Social Development of Gandaki Province, said chairperson of the hospital management committee, Bel Bahadur Katuwal. The hospital is in need of additional six doctors and 12 staff nurses, he said.

The hospital provided service to 35 thousand 174 people in the Fiscal Year 2020/21. Twenty people were provided dialysis service, 734 women were provided delivery service including 123 operations and 203 coronavirus infected patients were treated in this fiscal year.