(P2-75) Emergency Medicine Begins with General Practitioners in Nepal

Abstract

Introduction

Emergency medicine (EM) is a long-awaited specialty to be established in Nepal, although it has been practiced for a long time starting with hospitals in Nepal. Currently, almost all hospital emergency departments in Nepal are run under general practitioners (GPs) as emergency consultants (emergency physicians) and medical officers work as 24-hour duty doctors.

Methods

This was a five-year observational study (2006–2010) after the Department of General Practice joined with MD in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Results

There are no academically trained MD physicians working in Nepal according to the Nepal Medical Council's Registered Doctors, however, there are Nepalese doctors trained and working in EM in foreign countries. There is a demand of training those GPs interested in EM in a Fellowship/MPhil/MD program. There is a need for developing curriculum of EM for the Fellowship/MPhil/MD or for a different level of training collaborating with universities abroad. There is no ideal prehospital EM/emergency medical services capable of ambulance services. There must be a national code for mobilization and it must be under an umbrella of a governmental Department of GP and EM. Development of infrastructure for the EM department in every hospital in different parts of country is also a challenging task. Standards must be developed for EM and the EMS according to the need of the country. All known and unknown challenges can be addressed by coordinating with international support.