Ultrasound anaesthesia course starts at Kirtipur hospital

James Paget University Hospital's General Surgeon Dr Kamal Aryal and Dr Andreas Brodbeck, Consultant in Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, launched the Health Exchange Nepal comprehensive ultrasound regional anaesthesia course jointly with PHECT hospital Kirtipur on Tuesday 15 November. 

Overview to follow.

Guest Blog: Dr Andreas Brodbeck

Dr Andreas Brodbeck, Consultant in Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine at James Paget University Hospital visited Nepal twice in 2015. He shares his story:

"One week after the April 2015 earthquake, a team of four doctors from James Paget University Hospital arrived in Kathmandu. We had been sent to provide medical help to Kirtipur Hospital which had dedicated its theatres for the overwhelming need for orthopaedic surgery.

Not knowing exactly where and how our team would be working, I had the opportunity to take an ultrasound (US) machine to perform regional nerve blocks, which proved to be a very helpful technique for the patients with upper and lower limb injuries.

The hospital’s anaesthetic team - already well trained in regional anaesthesia – learned how to work the ultrasound very quickly. Sadly I had to return back to the UK with the ultrasound scanner, but we agreed that I should return to provide a US guided regional anaesthesia workshop later in the year.

One of my Nepalese colleagues at James Paget University Hospital, Dr Kamal Aryal, had run a successful laparoscopic surgery course in Nepal for many years, supported by Health Exchange Nepal (HExN), and this organisation was quickly prepared to support my ultrasound workshop.  HExN even funded a new ultrasound machine which we were able to present to the Kirtipur Hospital anaesthetic team when I returned to run the workshop in December 2015.

The one day workshop was successful and the feedback from attendees was excellent. We want to consider a two-day course in the future that would include clinical work and exposure in theatres with patients."

James Paget University Hospitals Medics Deliver Ultrasounds In Nepal

Six months after their original mission, medics from the James Paget University hospitals (JPUH) have returned to Nepal to donate a new ultrasound machine funded by SonoSite and the charity Health Exchange Nepal (HExN).

During their original visit our medics used ultrasound on earthquake survivors to effectively deliver medical procedures and anaesthetic blocks. The medical facilities in Nepal aren’t as advanced as our own here in the UK and so they didn’t have an ultrasound machine themselves, but quickly saw the benefits the equipment offers.

After returning from Nepal in May this year, Kamal Aryal, a native to Nepal and a general surgeon at JPUH, decided he wanted to do more and started looking into getting the Nepalese medics a machine of their own. After months of arranging it is fantastic news that Mr Aryal and his colleague Andreas Brodbeck, an anaesthetist, are out in Nepal right now delivering training on the new machine.

Our medics are also keen on supporting education for children and have been personally fundraising to make sure education continues despite the destruction caused by the earthquake last April. They have visited two villages, Darbung and Arrubas, so far and are pleased to report building work has begun on new schools and methods are in place for bringing in clean water.

Andreas Brodbeck said: “Nepal has been a little forgotten in the media lately but it’s still a country that needs help. Very little has happened apart from the things inhabitants have managed to do themselves”.