Bagmati Province Chief Minister Rajendra Prasad Pandey has said that educational institutions should be established according to the high importance of science and research. Chief Minister Pandey was inaugurating the Eighth Health and Population Scientists Summit organized by Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) here today. He stressed that the educational institutions should be research-oriented, saying the Bagmati province government would promote health research in coordination with the Council.
Chief Minister Pandey believed that research carried out in the health sector would support the formulation of sound health policies. Reiterating the need of producing capable physicians and scientists in the country itself, he said, "We have been sending students abroad for higher medical education instead of giving education for producing doctors within the country itself, we should produce skilled and capable human resources within the country itself," the Chief Minister reiterated. Minister of State for Health and Population, Bhawani Prasad Khapung expressed the belief that the Summit will come up with suggestions for the government for formulating important health policies. He said the country's health policy should be stable even if the politics is not so.
Bagmati province government health minister Nima Lama said that a provincial health research council would be set up for conducting health research in the province. CPN (UML) secretary Yogesh Bhattarai said sensitive sectors such as health and education should not be politicized. He stressed that quality health education should be provided at the ward level itself and people be given free medical treatment by scaling up a budget for the health and education sector. National Planning Commission (NPC) member Dr Uma Shankar Prasad called on capable doctors to go to the rural hinterlands and provide services to needy people.
He suggested opening pharmaceutical industries within the country itself as most of the medicines had to be imported from abroad. The Summit is organized under the slogan 'Promotion of Health Policy and System Research: Lessons for a Robust Health System in Nepal'.
NHRC Chief Dr Pradip Gyawali shared that the conference was organized to bring together health researchers, health experts, demographers, and policymakers to formulate policies and address the need for research on public health issues. Altogether 31 national and 22 international experts are attending the conference where 153 working papers will be presented by researchers on various topics related to health such as health system and policy, public health, COVID-19 pandemic, clinical research, one health, and global health, biomedical. The Council has been holding the health scientists' summit every year.
