By IANS
Kathmandu : After being closed for three days to protest a patient's relatives assaulting its doctors, Nepal's Manipal Teaching Hospital, run by India's Manipal Group, reopened Monday following an intervention by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala himself.
The doctors and other staff at the hospital called an indefinite strike Friday, resulting in all but emergency services being stopped, after hospital superintendent M.L. Panhani and three other doctors were attacked by the relatives of Rudra Prasad Thapa, who had gone to the hospital for follow-up surgery.
The 700-bed speciality hospital is run by the Manipal College of Medical Sciences, a collaboration between the Manipal Group – a premier name in healthcare and education – and the government of Nepal.
Six years ago, Thapa had had six plates inserted in an arm to join broken bones. However, when he went to the hospital to have them removed, the doctors said they could remove only two since removing the rest would cause the bones to crack.
As the hospital shut down after the attack, saying it would reopen only after the government gave the staff an assurance of safety, the prime minister intervened to resolve the crisis.
According to medical superintendent S.P. Kapoor, Koirala sent an emissary, Sukhraj Sharma, to Pokhara city, where the college and hospital are located, to hold talks with the senior hospital staff Sunday.
"After the government assured us security personnel would be deployed, the hospital reopened Monday," Kapoor told IANS.
The Manipal Teaching Hospital became the latest victim of what has become a trend in Kathmandu recently.
Hospitals and nursing homes across the country are coming increasingly under attack from aggrieved patients' relatives, causing a severe security situation for medical personnel.
This is the second time since 2005 that the hospital has hit the headlines.
In October 2005, the atrium of the six-storied building collapsed, killing 10 people. Two of them were staff members while the rest were patients or their relatives waiting at the outpatient department.