Crucial NC meet today, MPs, others to attend

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Mar. 17: A preparatory meeting of the Nepali Congress Secretariat was held today at the Prime Minister’s official residence at Baluwatar. The meeting is held on the eve of a meeting of the party’s rank and file.

A special meeting of the Nepali Congress’s Central Working Committee, MPs, former MPs and CWC members and the party’s district presidents will be held tomorrow at the Birendra International Convention Hall.

According to Baluwatar sources, the preparatory meeting was meant to work out the agenda to be discussed at tomorrow’s meeting, issues Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala will raise and on the directives the Prime Minister would give to the party’s district presidents.

Party sources say district presidents from more than 65 districts will be participating at tomorrow’s meeting.

Likewise, a meeting of the congress MPs and others said to be close to Sher Bahadur Deuba also held a meeting today. It is not known about the content of the meeting. Deuba and his supporters keep a different opinion within the party.

It might be mentioned that a no-confidence motion brought against Koirala as leader of the party’s parliamentary party by Deuba about four months ago had failed.

Tomorrow’s meeting is being held at a time when the Opposition parties have been disrupting the parliamentary proceedings since the last five weeks by demanding resignation of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala over his alleged involvement on the Lauda Air deal.

But Prime Minister Koirala has said that he would not step down going outside the constitutional provisions. The Prime Minister has also said that if the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) found him guilty he would not remain in the seat for even a minute.

Ensuring accurate diagnosis of diseases

BY B. M. DAHAL

Kathmandu, Mar. 17: A good relationship or communication between doctors and patients is considered to be a part and parcel of the health care system. Senior medical doctors and professors involved in the health care sector say a free-flowing doctor-patient communication and counseling are instrumental in an effective treatment procedure.

They say the findings achieved through good communication have helped doctors carry out proper and accurate diagnosis of diseases. According to them, 60 to 80 per cent of the patient’s problems can be diagnosed through good understanding and communication between the doctors and the patients.

Dr. J. P. Agrawal, Associate Professor of the Institute of Medicine (IoM) under Tribhuvan University (TU), says that lack of effective communication between doctors and patients is not only a hindrance to the treatment of the diseases but also creates psychological effects on the patients.

Dr. Agrawal, chief of the Neurology Department of the TU Teaching Hospital, says an effective communication between the two sides contributes to a large extent in curing many diseases. "So, communication is a central point of clinical practice," he opined.

But with growing commercialization of the health sector in the country, a good communication between the doctors and patients has become almost impossible. Since doctors are affiliated with various hospitals, nursing homes and clinics, they are unable to give much time to talk to the patients.

He further says that the lack of proper understanding between the two sides has also created a negative thinking among patients about doctors.

"We do not have a tradition of giving importance to the social and psychological aspects of the patients. We are more concerned with the medical aspects," he concedes.

This, however, is not the problem of only Nepal or other developing countries. The problem persists even in the developed countries. Researches conducted in the US have shown that doctors do not give enough information to the patients about the disease and medicines.

Prof. Dr. T. P. Thapa, Head of the Clinical Anatomy Department under IoM, TU, has similar views to share. "Apart from clinical knowledge, practicing doctors must have communication skills to provide better health care services to the patients."

Dr. Thapa maintains that since the profession of doctors is also a social service, they must have enthusiasm to understand others’ feelings.

"Communication gap may have an adverse impact on patients. This may affect quality of care. Therefore, doctors have to give adequate time to the patients and listen to them," Dr. Thapa expressed the view.

He also acknowledges that there are cases of doctors not following the medical ethics and the medical treatment has been getting more expensive. "Even without giving proper services, some medical practitioners are said to be charging unnecessary fees. What is now needed is to implement the medical ethics effectively to discourage such practices," Dr. Thapa emphasised.

According to him, many problems have been emerging in the society due to lack of proper health counseling.

Despite the establishment of new medical colleges and nursing homes in the country, there has been a growing trend of going abroad, especially India, for treatment among the Nepalese. The reasons behind it may be the unavailability of necessary equipment and specialists.

"Many treatable cases are also found being taken to foreign countries. This is because of lack of proper counseling here," he says.

Meanwhile, one of the problems that proves as an obstacle in the communication between patients and doctors could be the number of patients the doctors have to see.

Dr. H. G. Shrestha, Dean of IoM, says that the doctors may not be able to give much time to the patients at the government hospitals because of the sheer number of patients they have to attend.

"TU Teaching Hospital has 90 per cent occupancy on an average. Proper attention can be given only when there is 70 per cent occupancy," Dean Shrestha says.

He says similar is the situation of OPD and emergency sections. "In such a situation, it is difficult for the doctors to give enough time to the individual patients even if they want to."

Prof. Dr. P. C. Karmacharya, Chairman of Nepal Medical Council (NMC), says that developing a proper doctor-patient rapport has been a challenge as the curricula of medical science of the entire South Asian Region did not include such communication skills in the past.

However, many medical colleges of the region, including IoM, have now included communication skills in their curricula.

This is expected to produce doctors who know and realize about importance of communication to make medical service more effective and efficient.

"With the patients becoming more health-conscious, communication between them and the doctors has also become essential," Dr. Karmacharya says.

He further informs that IoM has now adopted an innovative curriculum, which is student-centered.

According to him, the past curricula contained broad guidelines, introduced by the NMC, to bring uniformity among doctors produced by different institutes in and outside the country. He also stressed that doctors are required to follow the code of ethics set by NMC.

Regarding the curriculum, the Dean of IoM says that IoM’s new curriculum has given importance to communication skills. "As communication skills are related to the improvement of the doctors’ attitude, the curriculum has focussed to enrich the knowledge, skills and attitude of the students at the graduate and post-graduate levels."

"Graduate students get exposure to the patients and community in the first year. They are sent to the community and carry out researches about the problems of community health," he says.

In the past, M.B.B.S. students were allowed to visit the patients after completing their second year. But at present, they have to look after the patients from the very first year.

He says that the products of IoM have been showing better performance in and outside the country.

"They are also working in the communities. Most of the doctors available outside the Kathmandu Valley are the products of TU Teaching Hospital," he says with pride.

Meanwhile, he says that the Council is planning to have the doctors applying for registration in NMC to sit down for written examination, which will also test the communicative skill of doctors.

Freedom fighter Malla passes away

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Mar. 17: Khadga Bahadur Malla, freedom fighter who was commander of Mukti Sena at Khajura Post, Nepalgunj, in 2007 during the fight against the Rana regime, died Friday at his residence at Belaspur, Nepalgunj. He was 76.

Lately, Malla was suffering from cancer of spinal cord, liver problem and paralysis of legs.

Late Malla is survived by two sons and nine daughters.

"Ancient Heritage": Pulse of Paradise

BY ARUN RANJIT

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev inaugurated a solo exhibition of "Traditional stone crafted sculptors" last Tuesday.

Jointly organised by Nepal-Japan Friendship and Cultural Association and Friendship Trust, the exhibition has 101 stone sculptures of various deities crafted by Dharma Raj Shakya.

A teenage artist, Sunil Kumar Maharjan, who could be taken as a new face in the Nepalese art field, has produced a broad range of atmospheric impressions of Kathmandu Valley’s temples, rivers, streets and scenic-scapes.

The 19-year-old artist who is studying Bachelor in Fine Arts at the Fine Arts Campus of Tribhuvan University, has intelligently grasped the essence and energy of the artistically created Kathmandu’s religiously important temples and other places in his work.

As an ancient heritage landscapist artist Sunil has so beautifully created and documented well the various pencil drawing sketches from in and around the Kathmandu Valley that covers from Kathmandu Durbar Square to Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Pashupatinath Temple to Gorakhanath Temple, Dattatraya Temple to Bajrabarahi Temple, Golden Gate to Stone Gate, Singh Durbar to Ghandruk, Panauti to Manakamana, waterfall to village scene etc.

His 30 works of impressionistic paintings and sketches being tactfully hanged at the wall of the J Art Gallery in Durbar Marg from 11th of March 2001 have captured well the activity and bustle that makes Kathmandu unique that blurs into its surrounding environment.

His approach is well suited and obviously intended to explore the beauty of the culturally rich cities such as Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur.

The young artist has the uncanny ability, in a very difficult medium, to place the viewer quickly within his own experience.

All the creations being put up at the gallery for his first one-man show as his weighty subject has proved him as a typographical artist. His work is a combination of travelogue and artist’s diary.

In this age of competing Ism, multi-media banality, computer generated "art" events, and other "realities" the artist has carefully created illustrative work of a definable historical past and rapidly changing present which is a pleasure to look at.

Sunil gives form to the inner rhythms of the pulse of paradise created by nearly vertical diagonal lines repeated in a "Ancient Heritage" series and adds another dimension and further meaning: existence is illusion, mortality is inevitable.

Thus, in an increasingly technological world, Sunil’s works are reminders of the need for balance and harmony of life.

Likewise, a six-member group of artist— Ms. Anju Dangol, Ms. Laxmi Maharjan, Ms. Sabita Chitrakar, Ms. Subhashree Adhikari, and Mr. Bhadra K. Thapa along with a Japanese artist Ms. Sachiko Takahashi— organised a group-painting exhibition.

Organised by Nepal-Japan Friendship and Cultural Association at Nepal Art Council Gallery at Babar Mahal, the painting show was inaugurated by Takamichi Okabe, Minister Councilor of the Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu.

At the show every artist has put up five pieces of work. Among them Anju’s works are based on traditional window crafts, while works of Sabita and Laxmi are of various deities.

Subhashree Adhikari created landscapes paintings whereas Bhadra Thapa’s works range from figurative to cityscapes.

Sachiko Takahashi, a Japanese national seemed to be impressed from the Nepalese custom. Thus, her paintings are depicted on Nepalese customary fashion.

The show is to be closed down on 21st March.

Similarly, Tribhuvan University and the Embassy of Israel in Kathmandu are going to organise an Israeli painting exhibition entitled "Drawing of Jerusalem" at Tribhuvan University’s Central Library Hall from 19 to 26th March 2001.

The Chairman of Raj Parishad Standing Committee, Dr. Keshar Jung Rayamajhi is scheduled to inaugurate the show amidst a function on Monday, 19th March.

The exhibition will have forty-four paintings, which are being painted by Israeli artist Yossi Chitrit in the year between 1989-1997.