KATHMANDU: A few hours after Prof Dr Govinda KCresumed fast-unto-death, Tribhuvan University accepted the resignation of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital’s Executive Director Prof DrBhagwan Koirala on Saturday.

Koirala had resigned yesterday after the TU failed to appoint new Dean at the Institute of Medicine.

Earlier also, Koirala had put in papers on January 21 to express his solidarity to Prof KC, who had staged 13-day hunger strike earlier demanding reforms in the sector of medical education and appointment of new dean at the Institute of Medicine.

TU Vice-Chancellor Prof Hira Bahadur Maharjan told THT Online this evening that he had no other option than accepting Prof Koirala’s resignation to ” save TUTH from chaos from tomorrow.”

Dr KC began hunger strike again after the TU did not appoint new dean at the IoM.

Prof Maharjan, however, dubbed Prof KC’s step as meaningless, and said he would ask the latter to end it.

“We have taken initiatives to appoint the new dean at Institute of Medicine. But the Search Committee could not make any recommendation,” Prof Maharjan said.

“We tried to appoint Acting Dean or Dean for three months on a par with the existing regulations. But none was ready to take up the responsibility.”

According to him, the TU Executive Council cannot do anything unless the Search Committee makes recommendations for the post of IoM Dean.

Veteran orthopaedic surgeon Prof Dr Govinda KC stages fresh hunger strike at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj on Saturday, February 8, 2014 after his ultimatum to the government to address his seven-point demand expired yesterday. Photo: Anish Regmi/THT Online

In order to pile pressure on the authorities to meet Prof KC’s demands, doctors at TUTH had resigned en masse.

Protesting the alleged anomalies in the sector of medical education and TU’s IoM for that matter, KC had staged the hunger strike, which he ended on January 24 after a team of government secretaries signed a three-point deal with the agitating doctors.

Prof KC, who has accused TU officials of corruption and being influenced by ‘medical mafia’ that is trying to open new medical colleges without proper infrastructure and quality, has demanded that the IoM, now under TU, be made an autonomous body.

THT ONLINE