The lack of a blood bank at the district hospital caused the beneficiaries to face significant challenges. As the only hospital in the district without a blood bank, patients face difficulties. After giving birth at the district hospital, most women in the postnatal period need blood. However, due to the long-standing lack of this service, women have faced many problems.
Rupsi Bohora, a 25-year-old woman from Simkot Rural Municipality-2, gave birth to her second child on August 21. Due to her anemia, she required a blood transfusion. Her husband, Tilak Bohora, expressed frustration over the difficulty of managing the blood supply. He expressed his disappointment towards the government’s negligence, stating, ‘It is the government’s fault not to have a blood bank in a critical facility like the only district hospital.’Bohora added that his morale is decreasing due to the lack of sufficient resources to address both simple and complex cases in a critical area like health.
Most pregnant women come to the district hospital from headquarters in Simkot for delivery, believing it to be reliable. However, due to the lack of necessary resources at the hospital, patients face premature deaths of their children and have to travel outside the district. Arjun Bohora, another resident, said that even if they had to go outside the district, they faced issues such as delays in accessing airplanes and financial burdens. According to him, if the facilities were as complete as in other districts, patients here would not have to suffer. Tilak Bohora said that his wife, who was in critical condition after two days of bleeding at the district hospital’s birthing center, managed to save her life after receiving B+ blood from ASI Thamansingh Ghartimagar of the District Police Office, Humla, on August 22. Many such incidents occur in Humla, leading to premature deaths of women. In the last two years, two people have died due to anemia in the district.
Prem Bahadur Singh, Chief of the Health Service Program in Humla, said that establishing a blood bank has not been possible due to a lack of funds. He added that, until now, they have been working by seeking help from external sources in response to such incidents.