BAGLUNG: Kathekhola Rural Municipality has completed the construction of a five-bed basic hospital in Ward No. 7. Named Reshma Hospital, the facility was built with an investment of Rs 36.465 million allocated by the municipality for the fiscal year 2023/24.
Although Kathekhola is connected to the district headquarters, Baglung Bazaar, it had only been providing basic health services through smaller facilities for the past three years.
The hospital was established to improve access to quality healthcare, especially for villagers with limited options. Until now, the municipality had no major health institutions aside from health posts and community health units.
For complex medical cases, residents had to travel to Baglung Bazaar. In response, the local government has been working to establish health institutions in every ward to make healthcare more accessible.
Currently, seven health posts and basic health units are operational across the municipality’s seven wards. While health posts had existed in the former VDCs of Resh, Bhimapokhara, Bihunkot, Lekhani, Dhamja, Tanggram, and Lekhani, access to adequate healthcare services remained difficult.
Chairman of Kathekhola Rural Municipality, Raju Thapa, who spearheaded the hospital’s construction with a focus on remote communities, said the initiative aims to enhance service quality and enable treatment of more complex health conditions locally.
“Every citizen should have easy access to healthcare,” Chairman Thapa said. “That’s why we’ve been setting up health posts and community health units across the wards. Now, with the completion of a five-bed hospital in Ward No. 7, we are preparing to start full services soon.”
Ward Chairman of Kathekhola-7, Prem Lamichhane, added that the new basic hospital will integrate services previously offered by the existing health post and expand healthcare offerings.
Over the past five years, the municipality has also established a health unit in Ward No. 8 (Kadesh), Ward No. 1 (Dobilla), Ward No. 4 (Phaparkhet), and a basic health unit in Ward No. 5 (Bihun).
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