A Decade of Critical Care Medicine in Nepal: Where Have We Reached?

Authors

  • Subhash P Acharya Department of Critical Care Medicine, Maharajgunj Medical Campus, IOM, TUTH, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Kabita Sitoula Department of Critical Care Medicine, Maharajgunj Medical Campus, IOM, TUTH, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Hem Raj Paneru Department of Critical Care Medicine, Maharajgunj Medical Campus, IOM, TUTH, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Shital Adhikary Department of Pulmonology and Critical Care, Chitwan Medical College, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59847/jsan358

Keywords:

Critical care medicine, ICU, ICU Beds, Nepal, societies

Abstract

The first ICU in Nepal started in 1973 at Bir Hospital and now there are 1595 ICU beds in Nepal and 840 ICU Beds with ventilators but only 35 Intensivists and only 2.8 ICU Beds/100,000 population. Anesthesiologists are the main physicians working in ICU and almost all ICUs are open or semi closed. Society of Anesthesiologist of Nepal was established since November 1987 whereas after 2010 Nepalese Society of Critical Care Medicine was established.

Nepal Critical Care Development Foundation was established in 2012 which started workshops & training for Nurses and also organizes various awareness programs on Sepsis Day and Hand Hygiene Day. Critical Care Nurses Association of Nepal was established in 2016 and organizes CCN instructor training program and also critical care nurse training program that has certified more than 300 Critical Care Nurses. Doctorate of Medicine in Critical Care Medicine was started at Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University as the first academic program in CCM from 2013 after which fellowship in CCM was started at National Academy of Medical Sciences (2020) and by NSCCM (2023).Masters in Nursing in Critical Care has been started from 2023 at Maharajgunj Nursing Campus, Institute of Medicine from 2023.

Nepal Intensive Care Research Foundation was established in 2020 and started ICU Registry which is now running in 19 ICUs and also working in research and clinical trials. Although COVID has brought in huge investment in infrastructure and equipments, the parallel growth in trained human resources and implementation of standard of care is still awaited. The current need of Critical Care in Nepal is trained human resources, more resources in clinical research, patient safety and quality

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Published

2024-03-12

How to Cite

P Acharya, S. ., Sitoula, K. ., Raj Paneru, H. ., & Adhikary, S. . (2024). A Decade of Critical Care Medicine in Nepal: Where Have We Reached?. Journal of Society of Anesthesiologists of Nepal, 10(2), 28-32. https://doi.org/10.59847/jsan358

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2023)

Section

Special Article

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Subhash P Acharya, Kabita Sitoula, Hem Raj Paneru, Shital Adhikary

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-NC-4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.