Bikalpa- an Alternative in support of Sahaj, organized an entrepreneurship talk show program called “Udhyamika Kura” on 2 February 2023 at Hotel Shree Krishna Biratnagar. The program’s objective was to share positive and real stories of entrepreneurs to inspire a young generation with an entrepreneurship vision. The program also provides a platform to do networking and idea sharing. For this Udhyami ka kura session, Dr. Gyanendra Man Singh Karki was invited as the guest speaker. Dr. Karki is the Chairman of Birat Medical College and Teaching Hospital. Mr. Basanta Adhikari, director of Bikalpa an Alternative moderated the program. He also delivered a welcoming speech to the participants and guest speaker.
During his speech, Dr. Gyanendra Man Singh Karki shared several instances about his medical and entrepreneurial journey and provided motivation and guidance to the aspiring young participants of the program. Dr. Karki was born in Damak, Jhapa but completed his schooling in Biratnagar. After finishing his SLC he went to Darjeeling and did I. Sc and B.Sc. from there. He was then selected for doing MBBS in Russia where he accomplished his MD degree and flew back to Nepal. He worked as a doctor for almost two years in his native land and again returned to Russia to study MS in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Soon after finishing his Master of Science, he came back to Nepal and joined Maternity hospital in Kathmandu.
He mentioned that his life took the turning point when he had to encounter the unfortunate demise of his mother during her visit to Biratnagar. He lamented for not being able to save his mother or at least help her in some way. He shared that all sudden he changed his mind and came to Biratnagar along with his wife and two sons sacrificing his well-established life back in Kathmandu. He remembered that when he started his professional career in Koshi Zonal Hospital, there was not any private hospital outside Kathmandu valley in Nepal and operation facility for the women was extremely substandard. He said that the women admitted in the hospital used to get their surgery date after 3-4 years of admission and hardly 10-12 major operations carried out in 1 year time period.
“I talked to the hospital manager and requested him to grant me surgeries in all seven days of the week”, reminisced Dr. Karki. However, they didn’t agree at first, but with constant nagging and complaining, they offered him four days a week to perform surgical duty. He shared that he used to perform 7-8 surgeries per day and within 7 months’ time period he completely cleared the long waiting list of the patients. After that, he planned to open his own hospital and rented a house, hired one nurse, one OT boy, one floor maid, and commenced his venture. He remembered that people used to tease him saying one-doctor hospital is very illogical and it won’t sustain for long time. But he didn’t listen to those remarks because his vision was pure, and he was least concerned about financial aspects and literally wanted to serve the people of his town. For 3 years he ran 25 beds hospital, and later he constructed two Storey building which is currently well-known as Birat Nursing Home. He delightedly shared that with his 25 years of hard work and dedication, his one-bed hospital has now transformed into Birat Medical College and Teaching Hospital which graduates 100 doctors every year and now consists of 1200 beds.
He expressed that confusion still persists in Nepalese context regarding the actual definition of medical sector. The concept that the medical sector should be non-profitable has been ingrained in our mind. But what we should understand is that every organization must gain some kind of profit or else it can’t be sustained. Today’s society perceives doctors as those professions which should be solely devoted towards serving people rather than focusing on the profits. However, it is only possible to provide free services to the patients if the government releases the economic burden from the medical sector. Either the government should take the responsibility or we entrepreneurs should manage the organization ourselves.
He then highlighted some remarkable progress of the medical sector of Nepal. He shared that Nepal is now in Number 1 or 2 position regarding the medical field across the developing nations around the world. Biratnagar, which had only one CT Scan machine now took stride with 14 CT Scan machines, 5 MRI machines, 3 heart machines. But unfortunately, all these transformations have been accomplished by the private sector of Nepal. The number of doctor’s produced by the government within 30 years is equivalent to the 1-year production by the private sector. He opined that the government flaunts this progress in front of the world under the shelter of the private sector but neglects them when their support is required. Finally, he ended his speech by suggesting the participants stop worrying too much about the future and consistently work on themselves to achieve their goals. “God has made us worthy of actions, it takes time to acquire the fruit we planted”, was the concluding statement of Dr. Karki.
After his insightful and thought-provoking speech, he also addressed the participant’s queries. Altogether 135 participants attended the event. The program ended with the handover of a token of love by Shristika Neupane and a vote of thanks delivered by Mr. Basanta Adhikari. The media partner Our Biratnagar and Makalu Television covered the whole session.
News Covered by Local Media
https://ourbiratnagar.net/2023/02/211489?fbclid=IwAR2npJQBJVCRe1OI-FlEhnNZAjoAH6V5eWISiujhSN6QPFEViB1YoJgg_TI
