Japanese aid for Bayalpata Hospital

The Embassy of Japan in Kathmandu is providing Bayalpata Hospital in Achham district to install up-to-date medical equipment as part of its effort to improve healthcare in remote parts of Nepal.

The contract for the assistance was signed on Friday between the new Japanese Ambassador Maeda Toru and Kunda Dixit, the Chair of Nyaya Health Nepal which runs the hospital at Bayalpata.

Nyaya Health Nepal was set up in 2008 to improve rural healthcare, and has since provided free world class treatment with specialised care free of cost to 1.3 million patients in the far west region of the country.

In that time, the medical need of the region has changed from mainly infectious diseases to lifestyle-related chronic ailments as well as an increase in trauma patients.

"I have learnt that Nyaya Health Nepal is improving access to healthcare for underserved communities in rural Nepal, including providing free medical services at Bayalpata Hospital in one of the most remote areas of the country,” Ambassador Toru said at the signing ceremony. “The hospital is the core medical institution in the Achham district and surrounding areas, especially for critical surgeries."

Japanese aid to Bayalpata Hospital NT — Photo: EMBASSY OF JAPAN

The $66,263 contract is under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (GGP) of the Japanese government, and will finance the purchase of a Digital X-ray flat panel unit, USG Machine, and C-arm imaging device that produces high resolution x-ray images of patients in real time.

“The grant will help our surgeons and doctors at Bayalpata provide more timely diagnosis, more reliable surgeries and treatment,” Dixit said. "In the last 15 years, the need of the people of Sudurpaschim Province has changed from infectious diseases to chronic ailments and trauma, and the hospital has tried to adapt accordingly in these underserved parts where access and affordability of quality healthcare is a big challenge."

Nyaya Health Nepal runs Bayalpata under its Integrated Municipal Healthcare model where community nurses go house-to-house to monitor the status of family members and record it all under its Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Patients then have to spend money to go to hospital only if it is really needed.

Nyaya Health Nepal has deployed its EHR in district hospitals in Karnali Province as well, and handed over Charikot Hospital in Dolakha after the 2015 earthquake before handing it over to the Bagmati Province in 2019.

Toru, who has been in Nepal for only three weeks, said that the project will provide better medical services to the people of Sudurpaschim and Karnali provinces through trauma care and orthopedic surgeries at Bayalpata hospital.

Added Dixit: "This support will go a long way in strengthening our hospital care. Medical equipment are extremely important, especially digital x-ray, as more and more patients come in for trauma care and emergencies."