Abstract
Abstract: A Study of Consultants involved in planning and designing the primary level hospital in Nepal is done to find out the perception of consultants on the ranking of various important factors required in hospital planning and designing, SWOT analysis of the consultant, assessment of existing qualifications of consultants and to find out the various training to enhance their existing capabilities for planning, designing, and implementation of the primary level hospital.
Top-five ranked important factors to be considered while planning and designing primary hospitals are linkages between different departments, complying with standards, multi-hazards resilient design, mandatory site visit, and universally accessible for disabled, child and gender friendly.
The SWOT analysis showed that the consultant's strengths to plan and design the primary level hospital is they have - their significant general experience, effective network of professionals, competent Human Resources, strong team, and general knowledge of standards and guidelines, and their weaknesses are - demand of high remuneration by the experts, lack of inhouse expert for electrical/sanitary/HVAC, lack of specific training related to health services design and limited case studies. Working with multi-stakeholders, areas/scope of improvement in current codes & practices for health infrastructure, innovative ideas, and concepts, and capacity enhancement opportunities at local levels are the opportunities for them despite some threats like frequent changes of officials at the local level, delay in procedures resulting in confusion and additional works, social/economical/political influences, lack of supportive role from the local level, and their awareness level.
The top three very important training for the consultant is training on relevant standards and guidelines, multi-hazard resilience, and conceptual/detailed architectural planning.
The existing capacity of the consultants should be enhanced by initiating training by the concerned authority like MoHP in coordination with relevant stakeholders. Whereas, the orientation and awareness program at the local level regarding existing guidelines and standards on health infrastructure development and construction is inevitable.