PHASE Clinical Guidelines

In early 2009, PHASE applied to the BMA Charitable Purposes Fund for support to publish the clinical guidelines we had been developing for the use of our primary care workers in remote rural areas of Nepal. We had been working on these guidelines for several years, in cooperation with two other organisations and several Nepalese doctors. They are in simple Nepali language and specifically applicable for the situation of isolated health workers in remote health centres in Nepal. A lot of governmental health workers had asked to get a copy, and we were keen to get them more widely used. The BMA agreed to a grant of £ 2,000, paid in May 2009.

Due to various delays the guidelines were eventually printed in September 2009 and a launch event took place in October. Over the next few months, PHASE staff will distribute the guidelines in a number of districts along the mid hill region of Nepal. PHASE senior health workers will visit the district health office at a time when health workers are there for training or workshops and will give a brief presentation about the use of the guidelines, to optimise their effectiveness. Furthermore, the Nick Simons Institute, a large NGO in Nepal which works mainly in skills development of governmental health workers, has been buying an additional 50 copies which are used by governmental health workers as a reference work after they have taken part in the 3 months Mid Level Practicum Course, developed by NSI.

Recently, we have met with the Human Resources lead at the WHO office in Kathmandu, who is very interested in helping to develop an improved second edition, which may hopefully be printed with WHO funds and distributed nationally via the National Health Training Centre. The current plan is for the second edition to be printed in October 2011.