UMLMEET AMID INTRA PARTY CONFLICT

UML CENTRAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETS

Kathmandu, 18 April: The 48-member UML central advisory committee began discussions Monday to take dissension within the party heading the government as pressure mounts against the functioning style of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal who was elected 3 February with Maoist support.
Khanal hasn’t succeeded in completing the expansion of his government with Maoist and MJFN support.
The government chief will hold discussions with committee members and seek their advice.
“I’m facing direct criticism from within and without,” Khanal admitted at a public function in Gulmi Sunday.
Maoists are demanding control of the home ministry as a pre-condition to name seven more cabinet members and 11 state ministers.
The Maoist party politburo meets for a two-day session to select the remaining team members; Deputy Prime Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara heads a four-member Maoist team.
Khanal is hesitant to handover home ministry responsibilities to Maoists after initially agreeing to a Maoist demand in a secret seven-point secret agreement with Chairman Prachanda.
Maoists insist the agreement must be honoured.
But Khanal said Sunday he’ll handover the ministry to Maoists only after agreement with other parties.
The prime minister is involved in a bitter public personal and ideological feud with former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal KP Sharma Oli who threatened the government chief Saturday to topple Khanal as party chairman and premier for disobeying party directives.
MJFN of Upendra Yadav has even threatened not to join the party also delaying the government expansion.
Yadav accused UML and Maoists in government for being ‘directionless’/
“If there is no progress on both the fronts [peace process and constitution drafting], there will be no reason for MJFN to join the government.” Yadav warned.
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BISKET JATRA ENDS

Kathmandu, 18 April: The eight-day Bisket Jatra that began during Licchivi rule ends Monday in Bhaktapur.
The idol of Lord Bhairab will be taken to Bhairab Mandir, the house of the God.
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UPENDRA YADAV ATTACKED


Kathmandu, 18 April: MJFN Chairman and party leader Renu Yadav were attacked by dissidents in Parsa Monday.
Renu was slightly injured in the assault.
Dissidents were protesting the dissolution of the party district committee.
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SURVEY ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Kathmandu, 18 April: New Era, a non-government, non-profit research organisation, under the guidance of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), is conducting fourth Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, The Himalayan Times reports.

Naresh Khatiwada, a demographer at the population division under the ministry, said the data would help calculate demographic rate, fertility rate, infant and child mortality at the urban, rural and the national level.

The survey would also help measure the level of contraceptive knowledge and practice, abortion, immunisation, reproductive health of women and health of children and nutrition and also regarding HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases.

“For the first time, the government is collecting information on gender-based violence with the use of Domestic Violence module,” said Khatiwada. New Era is conducting the survey at 11,095 households among women and male in the age group of 15 to 49 at 289 clusters. The organisation

has finished 58 per cent of field work. The country

has started the survey in January 2011 and will complete it by October.

The survey contains more than 200 questions in Nepali, Bhojpuri and Maithali languages. It takes around two hours to the respondent to answer the questions, according to the New Era.

This is the fourth comprehensive survey conducted as part of the global Demographic and Health Survey programme, technically supported by ICF Macro, an international

research firm, with the financial support of United States Agency for International Development.

Nepal conducts the survey every five years to update the demographic and health indicators by collecting data and monitoring family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition and other health programmes in the country.

After the data is analysed, we would be able to monitor the progress made towards achieving Millennium Development Goals, added the demographer.
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NEPALI DOCTORS LISTEN LESS ADVISE MORE





Kathmandu, 18 April: While you suffer from any ailment and visit the doctor, what will be your first expectation? Probably, friendly behaviour from the doctors will be the first expectation of all, Gita Saapkota writes in The Rising Nepal.
If the attending doctors do not behave humbly at the initial stage, the patients may feel discouraged and have little hope of getting cured.
A study also showed that in many cases, the doctors provide more advice and listen less to the patients.
The medics also agreed with the finding of the study and said that the doctors’ responsibilities were not only to test the patients and diagnose their diseases.
Maintaining a good doctor-patient relationship is also a treatment skill of any doctor, Dr. Jagadish Agrawal said.
"It is one of the seven components of doctors’ skills," he said.
Dr. Krishna Gautam, medical superintendent of Patan Mental Hospital, said that at first the doctors should be patient to listen to all complaints of the patients.
The patients could not believe in the curing skills of any doctors until and unless the doctors did not patiently listen to them and continued to visit several doctors, Agrawal said. "Even then many could not properly diagnose their diseases."
Dr. Gautam said that the patients having chronic illness might also have some mental problem due to their prolonged physical illness.
In such condition, the doctors need to counsel the patients and they should also deal with their mental problem, he said.
According to a study conducted in many countries of the world, in almost all cases the patients were not found satisfied with the doctors and around 50 per cent doctors had failed to address the patients’ physical problems and mental dissatisfaction.
With the aim of addressing this problem, a core curriculum prepared under the initiation of National Centre for Health Professional Education was approved by the Ministry of Health and Population and the Nepal Medical Council.
The curriculum was implemented in the Institute of Medicine (IoM) two years ago, Dr. Agrawal, executive director of the centre informed. The IoM is producing 20 trained doctors, he said.
Some months ago, the practice of doctor-patient relations in South East Asian nations was discussed at a meeting organized by the Network of Medial Council of World Health Organization in Indonesia.
In the meeting, Dr. Agrawal apprised the participants of the curriculum implemented in the IoM.
According to Dr. Agrawal, the WHO Network had asked Dr. Agrawal to prepare the curriculum to implement in the South East Asian countries.
"I have submitted the IoM curriculum with some revision to the WHO network," he said.
According to him, the curriculum that he presented was on the process of approval by the WHO.
Although Nepal Medial Council had already urged all medical colleges to implement the course, except IoM no any medical hospital had implement it so far.
The curriculum includes the technique of maintaining dignity of the patients, friendly dealing with the patients and gathering information among others.
If the doctors were trained according to the course, the incidents of manhandling the doctors and vandalism in the hospitals would significantly decrease, the doctors said.
Imparting such courses to the medics has already been in the practice in some developed country, Dr. Agrawal said.

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