Dr Govinda KC , a senior orthopaedic surgeon at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), broke his fast on Saturday after the government gave a written commitment to address a majority of his demands.

In a meeting with Chief Secretary Leela Mani Poudyal, representatives of the agitating faculty and resident doctors reached an agreement on a commitment paper forwarded by the government on Friday night that paved the way to end the protest at the Institute of Medicine (IoM) and TUTH. Dr KC agreed to end his fast following a mass meeting of IoM faculty, resident doctors and students on Saturday noon.

Following the agreement, the agitating faculty and resident doctors, who had halted hospital’s outpatient services for the past week in support of Dr KC, have decided to resume the services from Sunday. According to Dr Dinesh Binod Pokhrel, president of the Professors’ Association at TUTH, the Out Patient Department will resume it normal services from Sunday. The largest medical facility in the country receives around 1,500 patients at the OPD and over 300 at the emergency section each day.

The government has divided commitments into two section—ones that have already been fulfilled and those to be addressed in near future. The commitment paper has stated that they have already written to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority to investigate into alleged involvement of TU vice-chancellor, rector and registrar in irregularities and take action against anyone found guilty while calling for applications to grant medical college affiliations as demanded by Dr KC.

The commitment paper, signed by new IoM Dean Dr Rakesh Shrivastav, Secretary at the Education Ministry Narayan Gopal Malego, says the government will call a meeting of the TU Senate in three weeks’ time to endorse a proposal for granting maximum administrative, academic and financial autonomy to the IoM. Similarly, they have agreed in principle to expedite work of the task force formed to study feasibility on providing autonomy to the IoM, to stop affiliation to new medical colleges and to formulate policy before providing affiliation.

Dr KC, 57, who had been subsisting only on water, drank juice offered by Chief Secretary Poudyal and his two students—Dr Subarna Adhikari and Bipin Ghimire, an IoM undergraduate. Surrounded by a crowd of over 100 people, Malego read out the commitment paper. Similarly, speaking at the event Chief Secretary Poudel said it takes a long time to establish an institute while it crumbles in seconds. “We had our own faults. But now let’s work together to establish this institute a centre of excellence,” he said.

Dr KC resumed his hunger strike for the fourth time on February 9 as the government failed to appoint a new dean at the IoM as promised. He had forwarded a six-point demand before starting his fast. The TU Executive Council had on Wednesday appointed Dr Srivastav, the senior most professor of medicine, as the IoM dean. But even after the appointment, Dr KC declined to break his strike, maintaining that all of his demands including the end of political interference at the IoM and book the TU office bearers.

Earlier on January 24, he had ended his fast on the 14th day after the government pledged to address three of  the seven demands, including appointment of a new IoM dean.

source: the kathmandu post,16 feb 2014