Working with health posts in Nepal.

Interburns has an integrated approach to improving the quality of burn care in low resource settings and works with local organizations to have a sustained impact on this hidden and entrenched health problem that predominantly affects the poor.  

We work ‘broadly’ across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but also ‘deeply’ by encouraging local ownership and delivery of programmes based on internationally accepted standards, self-assessment tools and training.

Since 2012, Interburns has worked closely with the Nepal Burn Society and Sagun, a local NGO with expertise in community participation and development.

We were delighted to visit Nepal from 10th to 16th November 2019 to see Sagun’s great work in delivering the Basic Burn Care (BBC) programme to community-level health care workers and in developing community prevention programmes as part of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded programme with Interburns and the Centre for Global Burn Injury Policy and Research (CGBIPR).

The pressing issue of burns has been gradually rising up the local and central government agenda, and Sagun’s partnership with Interburns means that healthcare staff at all levels can receive quality training in burn care that is contextually appropriate and holistic. This is perhaps most important at the local level as this is often the first point of call for the burn injured patient.

It is clear that sustained contact between Sagun and local government can have a powerful impact on prevention and dissemination efforts in the future and we were very impressed to see the new quarterly brochure on burns developed as part of this project. Future plans include a prevention handbook, workshops in schools, exposure visits to hospitals, and street theatre.

Many thanks to Kamal Phuyal, Anil Dhital and colleagues from Sagun for organizing such an insightful trip as well as staff at the Sushma Koirala Memorial Hospital (SKMH) and Kirtipur Hospital, especially Dr Jaswan Shakya, Dr Rojina Shilpakar, Dr Kiran Nakarmi. Photo: healthcare staff at the Fakhel District health post with Richard Bendell, Kamal and Anil from Sagun and a burn survivor.