Friday, February 13, 2015

Senior citizens get discounted service at BPKHIS (Nepal)

Senior citizens get discounted service at BPKHIS  
   
ROHIT RAI

DHARAN, Feb 12 : Elderly people above sixty years of age have been receiving fifty percent discount on treatment fees at BP Koirala Institute of Health and Sciences (BPKIHS) since the last three days.

As per a directive issued by the Health Ministry, seven hospitals in the country are in line to establish a separate ward for elderly people. In the eastern region, BPKHIS is the only hospital to offer geriatric services. Other hospitals to follow suit are Patan Hospital, Bharatpur Hospital, Ayurved Teaching Hospital, Seti Hospital in Dhangadi, Bheri Hospital and Western Regional Hospital.

The directive, which makes fifty percent discount mandatory, instructs hospitals to provide cheapest but best possible treatments for the service seekers. The hospitals can get the discounted amount reimbursed from the ministry.

Although it has already started providing service for the elderly, BPKHIS has not yet created separate wards for them. "We were asked to begin services without any delay, so we had to do it. We are going to create separate wards soon," said director of the hospital Arbind Sinha. "We have already ensured separate counter for the aged people so that they don´t have to stand in queue for long," he added.

Service seekers in the geriatric ward in the hospitals need to produce their citizenship to register their name to avail the services. "Though the card is going to make a huge difference for the elderly, there might be some services which may not be available at discounted rate," said Sunil Parajuli, medical in-charge at BPKHIS.

Elderly people in the capital have been agitating since long time demanding health, travel and other facilities at discounted rates or for free. After the government recently announced to provide fifty percent discount to the elderly people in transportation fare in the valley, they demanded that the facility be extended across the country
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