BPKIHS launches home-based hospice service, OPD ticketing, wellbeing unit

KATHMANDU: BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) on Friday unveiled three initiatives: Home-based hospice service for terminal cancer patients, OPD ticketing feature on its mobile app, and Physical and Mental Health and Wellbeing Unit for students.

The hospice service will send BPKIHS doctors and nurses to patients’ homes in the Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City. Each visit costs Rs 1,500; indigent patients receive free care. Referrals may be arranged through the Oncology Unit in the Department of Internal Medicine. This is the first scheme of its kind outside the Kathmandu Valley.

An updated Android app now lets users register and pay for general outpatient tickets via IME Pay or Khalti, receive a digital token and view or download lab reports. Patients can present the token on arrival to collect their OPD ticket, cutting queue times and improving transparency.

Likewise, the new Wellbeing Unit, chaired by Dr Rinku Gautam Joshi of the Department of Psychiatry, offers sports, gym access, yoga and meditation classes, low-cost bicycle hire, a dedicated student OPD, a 24-hour mental health helpline, regular health screening and stress-management workshops. Similarly, a mentor-preceptor scheme has been reinstated, and new Oncology and Student Research Wings will enhance clinical exposure and research training.

These measures respond to rising cancer rates in Nepal and strengthen BPKIHS’s role as a key referral centre for oncology, palliative care and student support.