Health Exchange Nepal (HExN) is a registered charity. We raise funds through donations from individuals, partner charities and other organisations. We work in hospitals, health posts, schools, and communities throughout Nepal.
Our Team
We are a small team of dedicated healthcare professionals who volunteer our time and support to clinical and educational projects in Nepal. We also promote fundraising campaigns from the UK.
The HExN team comprises seven executive committee members (four of who are natives of Nepal). We also have a core group of UK-based clinical consultants who volunteer their time to running various workshops in Nepal throughout the year, and two volunteer communications consultants who manage our PR, website and social media activity.
From left to right:
Mr Jeremy Ward (Chairman) is a Consultant Surgeon in upper GI surgery at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Jeremy is active in endoscopic surgery education and training.
Professor Satyan Man Rajbhandari is a Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and is very active in diabetes education and research.
Dr Mohan Thapa (Treasurer) is an Acute Medicine Consultant at West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
Jon Wells (Communications Director) is Head of Marketing and Communications at social housing provider Onward Homes. Jon has previous NHS communications experience at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Jon provides PR and media management support to the charity, in addition to managing the website and social media presence.
Dr Sandesh Acharya is currently a sessional General Practitioner in Wigan, UK.
Mr Chris Ball is a Consultant Upper Gastro-Intestinal Surgeon at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay. With a strong commitment to surgical education, he has played a pivotal role in training surgeons in Nepal, including outreach to remote hospitals. His work reflects a deep dedication to global health and capacity building in underserved regions.
Mr Bishow Karki is a Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) and Transplant Surgery Trainee/Resident at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK. He is also a postgraduate researcher at the University of York, completing an MSc in Health Professions Education with a focus on integrating low-cost, high-fidelity surgical simulation models into undergraduate and postgraduate surgical training within resource-limited settings. He is the innovator behind the award-winning Laparoscopic Appendicectomy Simulation (LaApSi) model, which has been formally integrated into the Royal College of Surgeons of England’s Basic Surgical Skills (BSS) courses. A passionate advocate for medical technology and global surgical education, he also serves as an Honorary Lecturer at the Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Nepal, where he contributes to the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) module for master’s students in engineering
Our Partners
We work closely with a variety of healthcare and educational organisations both in the UK and on the ground in Nepal. We have also provided funding assistance to projects in partnership with other smaller healthcare charities. Our partner organisations and charities include:
