Emergency medicine in Nepal: are we going the right way and fast enough?

Abstract

Nepal is a landlocked country with variable topography including the world’s tallest mountains, tropical forests, and Gangetic plains. This topography leads to diverse healthcare needs, from tropical diseases in plains, to road traffic accidents in hills, and to disaster-related emergencies from floods and landslides during monsoon season and unpredictable earthquakes. Emergency medicine care is underdeveloped and is currently being provided by general practitioners. The capital city Kathmandu has a few tertiary healthcare centers with emergency medicine fellowship-trained general practitioners staffing them, but most of the hospitals outside of Kathmandu are staffed by minimally trained or untrained medical officers. Even though emergency medicine is recognized as a specialty, Nepal still does not have an emergency medicine residency training program. To improve emergency care in the country, the government of Nepal should be focused on facilitating the start of emergency medicine residency in Nepal.Graphical