Geta medical university faces scrutiny over readiness to start classes

The Martyr Dasharath Chand University of Health Sciences in Geta, Kailali, plans to start its first academic programmes in February 2027, while doctors and hospital employees question whether it is ready. The Medical Education Commission has approved 90 seats across four programmes: 50 in MBBS, 20 in BSc Nursing, 10 in BSc Medical Laboratory Technology and 10 in Optometry.

University officials say they are ready to teach. Vice-chancellor Dr Sunil Kumar Joshi said the university has met the infrastructure and legal requirements and that the commission set the seat numbers after inspecting it. Registrar Dr Bhim Bahadur Chand told The Kathmandu Post that the teaching hospital operates 325 beds now and has infrastructure for up to 920, and that the remaining work would be finished by the time students are selected and arrive. Joshi told the Post that the hospital already provides emergency, intensive care and diagnostic services, among others. In a separate statement carried by Nagarik News, the university asked stakeholders not to be in doubt, saying it has arranged the infrastructure, staff and institutional preparation that the commission's standards require.

The Post, which visited the hospital, found most of its large buildings empty. One building was running outpatient services, a laboratory, ultrasound, an emergency unit, general medicine and surgery wards, an operating theatre and an intensive care unit, and there were no dedicated wards for several specialities: paediatric and psychiatric patients were admitted alongside general medicine patients. Hospital doctors and employees told the Post that many departments and services are not yet operational and that patients are often referred to other hospitals in Dhangadhi. They also disputed claims that the hospital runs neonatal and paediatric intensive care units, and one employee asked not to be named. The university's officials say the services they listed are in place and that the rest will be added.

The university has signed agreements with four provincial hospitals, which the Post described as 20-year agreements. Joshi told Himal Press that the University Act allows hospitals run by any level of government to be used for teaching, that the agreements do not mean the university will not build its own teaching hospital, and that it plans to expand its hospital to between 500 and 600 beds within the two years before students begin clinical practice.

Dr Govinda KC, a campaigner for medical education reform, is on a hunger strike demanding that the approval be revoked and that classes not begin until the university hospital is fully operational. The Post reported that he had been fasting for five days. Joshi told Himal Press that the university takes KC's demands seriously. Devendra Bahadur Khatri, vice-chair of the Medical Education Commission, told the Post that the seats were allocated on the recommendation of its inspection team and seat-allocation committee, both of which visited Geta, on the understanding that the government would ensure the required standards were met. Students need hospital-based clinical practice only after their first two years, he said, so the commission allowed classes to begin expecting the infrastructure to be in place within that time.

Separately, Rajdhani Daily reported that the university has begun preparing its own blood bank and that a team of experts has completed a feasibility study. Joshi told the paper that the university has high-tech equipment but lacks basic items such as blood-grouping equipment, which it must buy. A university official told the Post that it plans to add a cardiac catheterisation laboratory, a burn unit and a trauma centre, and to begin buying CT and MRI machines as soon as possible.