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

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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

Airway Management Workshop, BPKIHS, 23rd August 2016

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The Airway Management Workshop was organized by the Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, BPKIHS in collaboration with Health Exchange Nepal, UK on 23rd August 2016.

The workshop was organized with the objectives to prepare and apply principles of advanced airway management including the use of latest airway devices. The inaugural ceremony started at 8:30 am.  The Vice Chancellor, Hospital Director, Registrar, Dean Academics/ Examinations, Deputy Director, Dr. Shambhu Acharya as a resource person were invited in the ceremony. The Vice chancellor appreciated the workshop and also promised to help the department in the future for any academic endeavor. Dr. Shambhu Acharya who also represented Health Exchange Nepal, UK, promised to continue helping the department as before. 

A total of 44 doctors attended the workshop. Thirty six attended the workshop as participants. Twenty-four participants were from BPKIHS while twelve participants were from different hospitals of the Eastern Nepal including Nobel Medical College, Birat Medical College and from different hospitals from Birtamod. Eight faculties attended the workshop as resource persons. 

The 4 topics included in the workshop were
•    Airway equipments and management of difficult airway
•    Awake intubation techniques
•    Fiberoptic intubation
•    Surgical Airway

The participants both from the BPKIHS and from outside BPKIHS were very much pleased to have hands-on training using various equipment that they had only read on their books. They requested the organizers for organizing similar training in the future also.

Prof Balkrishna Bhattarai
Head of Department of Anaesthesiology, BPKIHS, Dharan

HExN Charity Dinner - All Welcome

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Date and venue: 11th October 2016 from 6:00 - 9:30pm at the Cuerden Suite at The Ley Inn, Chorley, PR6 7EU.

Health Exchange Nepal (UK) invites you to a fundraising charity dinner to support HExN Nepal activities. Activities include games, a raffle and charity auction, and a slide show highlighting the last twelve months.

Drinks start from 6:00pm with dinner served at 7:30pm.

The event is free but all donations to our My Donate page are gratefully received.

You are encouraged to bring gifts, prizes, liquors, wine etc for the auction & raffle.

Please RSVP to Jeremy Ward at jeremy.ward@lthtr.nhs.uk or Satyan Rajbhandari at Satyan.rajbhandari@lthtr.nhs.uk.

We look forward to seeing you there!

HExN Charity Lunch in Support of Earthquake Victims

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Sunday 25 September: 1.30 - 4.00pm at Khushi Indian Buffet Restaurant, Middlesbrough

An invite from Dr. Anil Tuladhar:

We, as local members of Health Exchange Nepal (HExN) UK, would like to invite you all for the fundraising Charity Lunch event to support "Nepal Earthquake victims relief, rehabilitation and training" at Khushi Restaurant, Middlesbrough on 25 September 2016. 

HExN (UK) has been instrumental in providing immediate relief, providing shelters, rebuilding schools, and restoring water supplies to the areas affected by the 2015 Nepal earthquake. We are slowly moving towards rehabilitation by training the health professionals, and we also have been regularly running Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons endorsed courses and workshops to train local health professionals.

Please make this a grand event by supporting us for this just cause.

To book your place at the lunch, please email Anil Tuladhar at draniltuladhar@gmail.com by 15 September 2016.  

Support us in helping improve the health and well-being of the people of Nepal by donating now. 

HExN enjoys a fantastic Nepalese Doctor's Association AGM event

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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.  

Sandesh and Bhagteshwar's ABC Challenge - Days Three & Four

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Day 3 - Chhomrong to Dovan

Day 3 started decidedly colder than the other days. The altitude meant that the ambient temperature was colder. This day was easily the hardest of the trek starting with a decent of approximately 300m then a big ascent of approximately 400m towards Sinwa followed by a slow ascent to Dovan.

We faced a warm morning, a very hot midday, a rainy afternoon and heavy hail when we finally arrived at Dovan 8 hours after leaving Chomrong. I was really feeling the heavy pack at this point and made the difficult decision to leave a few things at Dovan before continuing up towards ABC.

I had found days 2 and 3 so difficult that I was concerned I would not be able to make ABC as the air gets thinner. Leaving clothes, some spare batteries and my sleeping bag, I managed to lighten my bag by about 3kg and decided that I would use the blankets provided by the lodges further up the trail.

Although our net gain for the day was less than 500m, due to the many ups and downs my Garmin watch estimated that he climbed about 1150m overall, higher than the height of Snowdon.

Distance: 12.7km, Net ascent: 430m

Day 4 - Chhomrong to MBC

Since I was small I had known the name of Machapuchre, meaning fish tail. However I never full understood why it was referred to as a fish tail as every photo I had seen showed the mountain from Pokhara where it always looked like a triangle or pyramid.

However Day 4 started with a view of Machapuchre that made me finally understand where it got its name. While the net ascent for the day was a lot more than for the previous day the lighter bag and steady ascent rather than big ascents and decents from the previous days meant the day went a lot smoother.

We went through a hazardous avalanche area. We realised the danger of this not just from the avalanche sign but also by our guide, Kumar’s change in demeanor, he was visibly more tense than he had been on the previous days. We also went past an area where we saw lots of small rock piles. Kumar told us that these were for good luck and added to by travellers on their way up to ABC. Only on the way back 2 days later when we passed the same spot did Kumar tell us that these were remembrance shrines to those that had lost their lives to avalanches in this area!

As we neared Machapuchre Base Camp (MBC) we encountered snow for the first time. The weather closed in as we arrived in MBC and we managed to get in and warm just before a storm that brought with it winds and snow.

Distance: 12.4 km, Net ascent: 1100m

 

Sandesh and Bhagteshwar's ABC challenge - Days One & Two

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Day 1 - Nayapul to Ghandruk

We left our hotel in Pokhara early in the morning via taxi to our starting point for the trek at Nayapul.

As we started our trek we got our first view of Machapuchare, the famous Fishtail Mountain, although Annapurna was hidden from view behind hill for the whole day. 

The trail was mainly a slow uphill trek with the occasional steep section and a steep climb when near Ghandruk. We were all holding up well apart from needing to stay well hydrated due to the heat during the middle of the day.

Distance covered: 13.4km

Net ascent: 870m

Day 2 - Ghandruk to Chhomrong

Waking up the next day we got our first view of Annapurna from the Gurung village of Ghandruk. It was nice to see a living a breathing village with many people going about their daily business. It was also nice to see a small glimpse of the local ethos and community spirit. We were walking past an area of the path where a paving stone had been dislodged. A local lady walking past stopped and put the paving stone back in place and gave the area a general clean before continuing on with her day.

We also had our first major descent and then ascent for the trek. We had to go to the hilltop near Ghandruk only to decend 450m down to the river and climb another 500m on the other side to get to Chhomrong. Although I had felt the heaviness of my bag the day before the ups and downs of this day really brought it to the fore that I should probably have packed lighter!

Distance: 12.2km

Net ascent: 230m