Kathmandu, Aug. 24 -- How Nepal's oldest hospital, and the government that runs it, continue to fail the country's poor

Laxmi Prasad Niraula was brought to Bir Hospital in Kathmandu on July 29, all the way from Ilam. Niraula was suffering from jaundice and had fluid accumulating in his stomach. He had been referred to Bir Hospital by the Nobel Medical College in Biratnagar and required immediate treatment. On the afternoon of July 30, Niraula remained on a bed in the emergency ward, awaiting treatment. Attending doctors had told his relatives that Niraula couldn't be admitted to the hospital because there were no beds free in the general ward. He could seek treatment at a private hospital instead, he was told.

"I wouldn't have come here...