Narayani Hospital: Protesters demand medical fees’ hike withdrawal

Birgunj, April 29

The protest by local residents in Birgunj demanding the withdrawal of a decision to hike fees at the Narayani sub-regional Hospital has entered its second day.

The Narayarani sub-regional Hospital Development Assistance campaign began protests on Saturday. Members of the campaign have said they will sit-in in front of the hospital for one hour every day until the decision to hike the fees is revoked.

The campaigners say that mentally ill patients with limited financial means come to the hospital for treatment and the hospital should not have hiked the fees. They said that following the hike in fees, the public hospital would become as expensive as private ones.

The campaigners said they were forced to launch protests after the hospital administration did not heed their demands.

The hospital’s mental ailments department had recently hiked fees saying that the fee collected from patients was not enough to run the facility.