Bayalpata Hospital - Filling a Critical Need in the Community

Possible Health, which is the new name for an organization more popularly known here as Nyaya (pronounce Nee - AYE- Ah) Health, was started by a group of medical students who responded with compassion and action to a desperate shortage of medical doctors in this remote region following Nepal's recent civil war (1996 - 2006).  Byalpata Hospital is a public private partnership - the land and buildings the hospital operates in were provided by the government, and Possible Health operates the hospital, raising funds to pay for equipment purchases, salaries, and most medicine purchases.

The hospital fills many critical health needs in the community, including:
-maternal and child health
-communicable disease treatment
-emergency treatment for trauma

It does this through its emergency and outpatient departments, which treat approximately 300 patients per day, a 53 bed inpatient ward which is about 80% occupied, and an active community health program, which sends community health workers into the field to encourage safe birthing in hospital, to provide patient follow up, and to conduct health literacy campaigns.

This is a busy time at the hospital.  Last night the hospital staff conducted a Cesarean section, one of several births this week.  It is cholera season in this part of the world as the rainy season starts, so ensuring a robust supply chain to the essential medicines is one of our tasks while here (we were able to provide a thorough inventory assessment to the Bayalpata hospital director on arriving here last week).  And every day we see children with casts on arms or legs -  needed for broken limbs sustained while working, or just walking, in this place where stepping off a path often leads to a punishing fall.

The doctors, nurses, and community health workers here do their healing work with great teamwork and grit - facing chronic shortages of power, manpower and properly maintained equipment.  I'm honored to be permitted to support them, and will share more about these amazing people and their work in future posts.