Urban areas don’t need new hospitals: Health Minister

Bhaktapur, April 28: Minister for Health and Population Pradip Paudel has said that new hospitals are not needed in the urban areas for specialized treatment facilities.

At a program on the 17th foundation day of Nepal-Korea Friendship Hospital on Monday, Minister Paudel said that new hospitals should not be built in the country’s city areas, adding that existing hospitals were enough to provide health care services if their effective management were ensured and quality services were provided, making them IT-friendly.

On the occasion, Minister Paudel shared that 6,743 wards across the country should be provided with a basic health center, and the healthcare institutions in the remote areas were struggling to provide quality services because of a lack of infrastructure and technology.

Likewise, he said that the health insurance system would plunge into crisis if we failed to implement the contributory-based insurance scheme adding that the Health Insurance Board has to pay Rs 37 billion to different hospitals.

“To uplift the insurance system, state’s investment and citizens’ contributory-based insurance system should be implemented,” according to the Health Minister.