The first meeting of the Nepali European Health Team was recently held via virtual platform where a large number of health professionals of Nepali origin from various countries of Europe participated.
Coordinated by Dr. Bodha Raj Subedi, the Europe Health Team Coordinator who is also member of international coordination council of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA), the meeting generated numerous advises, feedbacks, ideas and steps in strengthening the team for the overarching cause of benefitting Nepali particularly in Europe as well as in Nepal.
‘The formation of the European Health Team, as the integral part of the Health Committee of NRNA, has not only coaleased the health professionals in the Europe region, but also been a model to other regions of the world,’ said, Dr. Sanjeeb Sapkota, the Chair of NRNA Health Committee.
‘After almost a decade of conceptualization, thought process and planning, European Nepali Health Team has been a dream come true,’ said Dr. Bodha Subedi.
The participants of the meeting from Europe were Dr. Sambhu Acharya, Dr. Sunil Sah, Dr. Dileep Yadav from the United Kingdom; Dr. Alini Pokharel-Subedi and Dr. Bodha Subedi from Poland; Prof. Ganesh Acharya from Sweden; Dr. Suraj Thapa , Dr. Manoher Pradhan and Dr. Dipak Sapkota from Norway; Ms. Subdari Lama( nurse) and Ms. Sarala Sapkota ( nurse) from Spain; Mr. Jaya Prasad Siwakoti( health assistant) from Slovakia, Dr. Mahesh Adhikari and Dr. Manoj Basnet from Finland; Dr. Raju Srivastav from Belgium; Mr. Krishna Prasad Siwakoti ( nurse) from Switzerland , Dr. Praveen Yadav from Germary and Dr. Anil Kumar Das from Italy.The participants also include Dr. Sanjeeb Sapkota who joined from the United States.
Dr. Sunil Sah accentuated the value of the team with participants from across the Europe and its role in providing unique services to the Nepali diaspora; collective investment is one of them. Dr. Sah lead the UK Health Team, a part of United Kingdom’s NRNA. He shared the mortality and morbidity information related to Corona infection.
Prof. Ganesh Acharya shared that the team should explore common grounds and ideas for further cooperations. With what we are facing currently, the difficulties and challeanges of medical professional should be addressed, Dr. Acharya said.
Dr. Suraj Thapa underpinned the value of network of professional organizations among European nations. The Nordic Nepali Medical Society meets every week to share informations and best practices among the professional groups.
Dr. Dipak Sapkota stressed on academic collaborations among things mentions by others. Dr Pradip Kumar Yadav said there is huge opportunities of data collection and knowledge management. There are around 50-70 doctors in Germany, but due to the lack of leadership they could not be linked together in the manner they should be but no leadership till now. We can gain a lot from the friends from numerous parts of Europe, said Dr. Yadav.
Dr. Shambhu Acharya said there is great need to address the health problems of the former Gurkha soldiers. Dr. Acharya shared best practices of medical professionals on keeping themselve and their family members safe durinng the Corona epidemic.
Dr. Alini Pokharel Subedi said building medical professions network has been effort for a long time and epressed delight seeing such happening. She emphasized that the focus of the team at present should be to help in slowing, stopping and other management of the pandemic.
Dr. Manoj Basnet said Nepali community in Europe need simple health education, as those would benefit in their health outcomes. Dr. Raju Srivastav highlighted that many Nepali, health care professsionals or not, could help without being directly involved in treatment, specially in the case of Belgium, where he is from.
Ms. Sudari Lama, a nurse from Spain, updated on infection and mortality situation in Spain and shed light on the shortage of medical equipment for the health care workers.
Mr. Jaya prasad Siwakoti , a health assistant from Slovakia said if the health team should be part of NRNA’s Health Committee of or an autonomous group should be discussed. Clear objective and the defined audiences of the Health Team need to be discussed. Vested political interest should not guide the agenda while helping our community.
Dr Bodha Raj Subedi emphasized the need of continued discussions to streamline the objectives of this group, to share knowledge to foster investment in preventive health in Nepal, to know each other better and be ready to help when needed, to make the team ad the network active and effective, and to formulate objective that meet both the need both at the present and in the future.
Dr Sanjeeb Sapkota said the team has unlimited potential from providing services to community, from raising awareness for better health outcome, from coaleasing the individuals voices to a loud sound of health advocacy to intiating myriad of events and services in Nepal to benefit fellow compatriots.
The team plans to convene soon and and expects a wider participation and the creation of prioritised action items.
Comment