SUSPENSION OF ALL SERVICES AT HOSPITALS EVEN WITH ENFORCEMENT OF ESSENTIAL SERVICE ACT Kathmandu, 18 Aug.: Nepal Medical Council (NMC) Saturday enforced a two-day closure of services at hospitals nation-wide, except emergency, demanding appointment of independent and qualified senior personnel in hospitals. The apex body of doctors is demanding the demands of Dr. Govida KC at TUTH on hunger strike since the beginning of this week again pressing the demands. Doctors closed down services as government enforced essential service act to ensure smooth running of essential services and supply of goods following a strike y MPG dealers. One doctor at NMC regretted the inconvenience that will be caused to people by suspension of services but argued people will gain in the long run if the strike is successful Council doctors and Prime Minister Dr..Baburam Bhattarai began talks Saturday morning at Baluwatar to resolve the demands. nnnn NC CWC ENDORSES 12 NEW DEPATMENT AS DEPUA PROTESTS Kathmandu, 18 Aug.: Amid protests from leaders close to the Sher Bahadur Deuba faction, the Nepali Congress (NC) Central Working Committee meeting has officially endorsed a proposal of party President Sushil Koirala to form an additional 12 departments in the party, Kosh Raj Koiirla write in Republica.. The CWC meeting held at party headquarters at Sanepa on Friday, also endorsed Koirala´s earlier decision to name the heads of the party´s 42 departments, including 12 new departments, and the 14 zonal coordination committee coordinators, through majority vote. The meeting, however, concluded without any ´minuting´ as the CWC members close to Deuba insisted that they be allowed to write a ´note of dissent´. Deuba faction leaders had all walked out of the hall shortly after Koirala exited the venue saying all his proposals were endorsed. CWC member Dhan Raj Gurung, who is close to the establishment faction, said the rival faction leaders argued that since they had already resigned from their posts because of their reservations, they could not endorse the proposals. Koirala had turned down the demand of Deuba faction leaders to be allowed to write a note of dissent. "I have taken the decisions in line with the party statute and regulations. Why do you blow every decision I take out of proportion?" Gurung quoted Koirala as saying. Koirala named the chiefs of the 42 departments and zonal coordinators on July 29, nearly two years after the party´s 12th General Convention. As per the party statute the appointments were due within two months of the general convention held in September, 2010 but were delayed by differences between the factions. The differences surfaced again after 13 department chiefs and six zonal coordination committee coordinators resigned on Wednesday. NC Spokesperson Dilendra Prasad Badu said the CWC meeting has rejected the resignations. "They said they would write a note of dissent and they can do so if they wish," he said. Leaders close to the Deuba faction have termed the ´majority decisions´ as ´unfortunate´. "What happened today is very unfortunate. This is due to the party president," said Purna Bahadur Khadka. Khadka claimed Koirala had all of sudden announced that his proposals were endorsed though CWC members from their faction were still putting forth their views. "We immediately registered our dissent and said we would write a note of dissent," he said. "But as Koirala refused our demand, we asked which provisions barred us from writing the note of dissent." Speaking at the meeting, CWC members close to the Deuba faction had asked party office bearers including Koirala to bring the proposals in consensus even though that may take a few days. The establishment faction has taken the Deuba faction´s insistence on consensus as a ploy to render Koirala ´unsuccessful´. "We waited two years for consensus. How can there be consensus at a time when leaders from the other faction are resigning en masse?" asked Bishwakarma. "We will now move forcefully against them." Despite the Deuba faction boycott, the CWC meeting also decided to form a central discipline committee, an election committee and an audit committee of the party. The discipline committee headed by Aamod Prasad Upadhyaya includes Dil Bahadur Gharti and Meena Pandey as members. Two other members will be included once the Deuba faction submits names. Likewise, the election committee headed by advocate Yadu Nath Khanal has advocate Gopal Krishna Ghimire as member. Similarly, Deep Kumar Upadhyay heads the audit committee with chartered accountant Dilip Dhungana as a member. There is an understanding to include one member each from the Deuba faction in the election committee and the audit committee nnnn HIGH C-SECTIONS AT PRIVATE HOSPITALS WORRIES GOVT. Kathmandu, 18 Aug.: Expressing concern over high rate of caesarean deliveries at nursing homes and private hospitals, the Family Health Division (FHD) under the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has recently written to these health institutions about the problem, Arun Paudel writes in Republica. The FHS wrote to the institutions upon finding that some private hospitals and medical colleges were conducting more caesarean deliveries than vaginal deliveries (normal delivery). Compared to government hospitals, private health institutions are conducting three times more caesarean deliveries, FHD said. Officials at the ministry suspect that the private centers might have encouraged caesarean deliveries to extract more money fro IN PRIVATEHOSPITALS m patients. They said private medical colleges are conducting more caesarean operations for teaching purposes. Patients have to pay between Rs 30,000 and Rs 100,000 per caesarean deliveries at private health institutions. Despite knowing about the high incidence of caesarean deliveries at private health institutions, FHD has written only to those institutions that are implementing the government´s ´Safe Motherhood Program.´ The MoHP provides money to those institutions for the "Safe Motherhood Program" and these institutions conduct deliveries free of cost. "We have written to some private hospitals and medical colleges about the high incidence of caesarean deliveries," Dr Silu Aryal, focal person of Safe Motherhood Program at FHD, said. Dr Aryal, who is also a senior consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, said that only 10 to 15 percent out of total pregnancies have complications during delivery. Among them up to 5 percent require surgery. She said that private hospitals and medical colleges which do not implement ´Safe Motherhood Program´ have higher incidence of caesarean deliveries. The office said that such health institutions do not provide information to the government about their practices. The Maternity Hospital, the only maternal referral center in the country, conducts caesarean deliveries in less than 20 percent of cases. The hospital carried out 21,245 deliveries in 11 months of the last fiscal year 2011/12 and only 4,231 were caesarean. In the fiscal year 2010/11, The previous year, the hospital had carried out 23,570 deliveries and 4,848 of them were caesarean. The Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) carried out 3,910 deliveries and women. Among them 2,549 were normal and 1,361 were complicated deliveries. Of the 1,361 caesarean sections were conducted on 1,000 women and this is only 25 percent. According to the District Public Health Office (DPHO) Kathmandu, at Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) which also implements ´Safe Motherhood Program´, 44 percent of the total deliveries were caesarean during the last fiscal year. Likewise, 49 percent of the total deliveries at Kritipur Hospital were caesarean. Hari Kishor Shrestha, the director of Om Hospital and Research Center, said most of the deliveries at the hospital are caesarean. "Mostly complicated cases come to our hospital, we do not want to risk miscarriages hence the high rate of caesarean section," said Shrestha. "A patient has to pay Rs 25,000-30,000 for normal caesarean section," he added. Chief of Safe Motherhood Program, Dr Aryal said both the doctor and patients prefer surgical intervention to avoid risks. Likewise, doctors do not wait for normal deliveries, which can take hours. Women can go home early and return to work if they opt for caesarean section, she said. Dr Aryal also said more people these days request caesarean section. "Women these days do not want to undergo labor, so they request surgery," she said. Dr Aryal however added that caesarean sections have several complications and it is unethical to conduct surgery for money, but the govenrment does not have any mechanism to check such practices. Nnnn GOVT. RECOGNITION FOR ONE UNION IN ONE INDUSRY Kathmandu, 18 Aug.: There will be only one trade union in industries in the future. The government has decided to hold elections among existing trade unions to build ground for only one trade union in industries in the near future, The Himalayan Times writes. The second meeting of Nepal Business Forum (NBF) held today under the chairmanship of prime minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai has taken the move for allowing only one authorised trade union with a view to give momentum to industrial growth in the country. Currently, there are up to five trade unions in industries. The private sector has been demanding representation of only one trade union in an industry. According to them, labour disputes exist in all industries including multinationals due to different trade unions with differing political ideologies within one organisation. “Having only one trade union will help solve most of the industrial disputes,” said chief secretary Leela Mani Paudyal. Trade Union Act and Labour Act have a provision of only one trade union in an industry or business enterprise. NBF meeting has proposed to hold elections within July 2013, according to the existing laws. The meeting also decided to build a legal framework to open the capital market for foreign investors. There is a legal provision for Non-Resident Nepalis to invest in the domestic capital market but its progress has been too slow. The legal provision will be developed in coordination with Nepal Rastra Bank and Securities Board of Nepal. NBF has decided to include garments in the export potential list. Nepal Trade Integration Strategy has included 19 items in the list. Garment will be included in the list that will allow it to get trade facilitation support according to World Trade Organisation policy. The meeting has decided to draft a directive of Technology Development Fund. Ministry of Finance will provide Rs 10 million for the fund that will be operated under private public partnership. Similarly, NBF meeting also decided to form a separate mechanism to monitor cooperatives. Currently, Department of Cooperatives and its offices have been doing the job. In the meeting, PM Bhattarai said that the country will be guided by economic agenda hereafter. “The government will promote economic nationalism to build a prosperous Nepal,” he said. He also informed that the government will bring the regular budget shortly. Homework for a regular budget is going on, he added. Nnnn GOVT. APPOINTING DR. PRAKASH SAYAMI DEAAN AT TUTH WHERE HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES TO DEMAND APPOINMENT OF APOLITICAL SENIORS Kathmandu, 18Aug.: Politics continued to reign supreme in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital even as a senior doctor battled against politicisation in the health sector and entered fifth day of his fast-unto-death today [Friday], The Himalaya Times writes.. Dr KC has been on a hunger strike for the past five days demanding merit-based appointments in the Institute of Medicine and action against officials found guilty of irregularities. Despite Dr Govinda KC's health deteriorating, the stakeholders continued to wrangle over the appointment of the dean at IoM. A meeting of the TU Executive Council failed to pick a new dean today as well. A senior doctor at TUTH told this daily seeking anonymity that Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has finalised the name of Dr Prakash Sayami as the new dean and that a selection committee at the hospital has approved it. But there was conflict of interest in the TU Executive Council and as a result the government stopped short of making public the decision of appointing Dr Sayami's as the new chief. But TU Vice-chancellor Hira Bahadur Maharjan ruled out the appointment. "A search committee formed under Dr Ritu Prasad Gadtaula at TUTH has not provided the final name list," said Maharjan. When contacted, Dr Gadtaula said his team was still working to finalise the names recommended for the dean, but refused to go in details. "A decision will be taken by Saturday," said Dr Gadtaula. But Education Minister Dina Nath Sharma told this daily that he had received three names for the dean's post and that one of them will be chosen on seniority basis . Dr KC’s health deteriorating Health condition of Dr Govinda KC, who is on fast-unto-death, has further deteriorated, said Dr Prem Khadka who is attending to him. “He is being administered saline drip since 1:00pm today,” said Dr Khadka. “Dr KC is suffering from low blood pressure, muscle cramps and starvation, but he has refused to take medicines.” nnnn