Kathmandu, August 22. Minister of State for Health and Population Umesh Shrestha viewed that 20,000 medical professionals and health workers should be recruited for the public health facilities across the country to meet the demand.

At a programme organized at Bharatpur Hospital in Chitwan on Sunday, State Minister Shrestha reiterated the launch of vacancies for doctors, nurses and paramedics to make them safe and provide healthcare services in an easy manner. 

Pressing for well-equipping public hospitals with all sorts of resources, Shrestha opined that there were many health facilities in Bharatpur because the Bharatpur Hospital could not provide all sorts of healthcare services. 

He also asked the hospital management to provide him with the list of equipment it needs and apprise him of whatever issues it was facing. 

On a different note, the Minister of State assured that 33 percent of the population in Nepal would be vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-October this year and all eligible beneficiaries would be vaccinated within mid-April next year. 

Nepal needed 55 million vaccines and agreements were already inked with various vaccine-producing and supplying countries for 52 million vaccines, according to him. 

According to him, Nepal could not procure vaccines beyond the capacity of storage facilities. It can store only 2.5 million at a time, he added. 

According to him, PCR tests and antigen tests would be administered for free in a few days.

On the occasion, Nepali Congress Chitwan’s President Jit Narayan Shrestha expressed worry over the disparity of remuneration to the health workers in Bharatpur Hospital in comparison to the nearby Cancer Hospital. 

Likewise, Bharatpur Hospital’s coordinator for educational programme Pro Dr Krishna Poudel spoke of the need for the government to open its own medical college. 

He also viewed that the Hospital should be upgraded from time to time. Chairperson of the Bharatpur Hospital Management Committee, Dr Bhojraj Adhikari, pointed out the need for proper waste management of the hospital and to ensure clean drinking water.