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.

Anaesthesia Pain and Critical Care Medicine (CURRENT 2016) Refresher Course in Kathmandu

Health Exchange Nepal (UK) organised a refresher course in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) on 26 August 2016 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Dr Shambhu Acharya took the responsibility of forming an international faculty and the rest of the faculty members were from TUTH for this meeting. It was an opportunity as well as a challenge to find the experts in the relevant fields who were willing to go to Nepal during a holiday season on a voluntary basis.

Three consultant anaesthetists from Aintree (Dr Shambhu Acharya, Dr Raj Nagaraja and Dr Shetty) and Dr Jagadish Agrawal from Wirral Hospitals and one paediatrician Dr Sujay from United Arab Emirates kindly agreed to be the faculty members to go to Nepal.

A range of topics were included in the course. The international faculty covered the following topics:

  • Anaphylaxis: Dr Shambhu Acharya
  • Complications of regional anaesthesia: Dr Ravish Shetty
  • Pregnancy induced hypertension: Dr Jagadish Agrawal
  • Neonatal resuscitation: Dr N Sujay
  • Critical appraisal of scientific papers: Dr Raj Nagaraja
  • Fluid management in trauma patients: Dr Raj Nagaraja

There were many challenges for our faculty as Nepal lacks many resources and some drugs are not available there and some alternatives were to be found that could be used in Nepal. 

Photo (Left to Right):
Dr Gentle Shrestha, Dr Diptesh Aryal (Co-ordinator for the course in Nepal), Dr Nagaraja, Prof Bimal Kumar Sinha (Acting Dean, Institute of Medicine), Dr Acharya, Prof Marhatta (HoD of Anaesthesia, TUTH), Dr Anil Shrestha

HExN enjoys a fantastic Nepalese Doctor's Association AGM event

HExN Committee members attended the Nepalese Doctor’s Association (NDA) 31st Annual General Meeting held in Newcastle from 29th – 31st July 2016.

140 delegates attended the event, most of which were Nepalese origin doctors based in the UK. The majority of these doctors are also members and active supporters of HExN. HExN has collaborated with NDA on a number of projects in Nepal over the past year.

HExN Chairman Satyan Rajbhandari led a forum on careers for junior doctors, highlighting the fact that charitable work counts positively in career progression in medicine. Other NDA members also spoke at the event about their charity work over in Nepal, including Kamal Aryal, Consultant of General Surgery at James Paget University Hospitals and NDA General Secretary. My Aryal presented an overview of the work of HExN in rebuilding schools and conducting the Laparoscopic surgery course at Dhulikhel Hospital just outside Kathmandu.  

Former NDA Chairman Dr Arun Jha discussed HExN’s support in providing training on post-traumatic stress disorder, and HExN committee members also managed a dedicated stand at the event.

Delegates were impressed with the work HExN is undertaking in Nepal and we are delighted to welcome 12 new members to the charity.  

Supporting the Newborn Life Support (NLS) Course at Dhulikhel Hospital

On the 27th and 28th March 2016, an overseas team of six from the UK and Quatar, coordinated by Dr Anil Tuladhar, Consultant Paediatrician at University Hospital of North Tees, conducted a two day Newborn Life Support (NLS) course at Dhulikhel Hospital in the Kathmandu Valley.

The course was fully subscribed very quickly, with the maximum of 25 participants attending both days. 

Feedback for the format and conduct of the course was excellent with many participants stating that this was the most "hands on" simulation-based neonatal life support course they had attended.

Health Exchange Nepal (UK) is delighted to have sponsored the course and provided the necessary equipment required, including manikins. The course was run in collaboration with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust (UK) and ably supported by the Dhulikhel Hospital team.

The team plans to run this course every year and reach out to other areas in Nepal to attend.

Barbara Harrison, Retired Ward Matron Neonatal Unit from Northern Deanery in UK, also conducted three days of neonatal advanced care training to the Dhulikhel nurses prior to the NLS course.

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."