Lack of funeral vehicles in Covid-hit Nepal’s Bajura Hospital

Bajura Hospital has failed to procure a single funeral vehicle for the last two years and the budgetary allocation on that account has been returned, claimed a Badimalika Municipality official.

With the advent of a new and more virulent variant of coronavirus, five people have lost their lives to the contagion in the district.

However, due to the lack of appropriate vehicles, tippers are being used to ferry the bodies to cremation sites.

This fiscal, although Rs 1.5 million was allocated for buying  ambulance and hearse, the purchase is yet to be completed.

"This year too budget has been allocated for the ambulance and funeral vehicle but the process has only been started. It will take more than two months for the procurement of these vehicles,” said Dr. Prakash Joshi, acting chief of District Hospital, Bajura.

In the absence of ambulances, coronavirus patients are hard put to visit the district hospital or go somewhere else for treatment.

Although other patients are ferried in private vehicles, Coronavirus patients are denied that means of transportation, informed Tek Bahadur Khadka, chief of Health Division of Badimalika Municipality.