BPKIHS, TWCC, NHCC launch telemedicine service across Koshi Province

DHARAN: A telemedicine service has been launched across all 14 districts of Koshi Province to deliver palliative and hospice care to patients in remote areas.

The BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) will act as the central hub in a hub-and-spoke model linking district hospitals across the province. A two-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed by BPKIHS, Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration (TWCC) and Nepal Hospice Care Centre (NHCC). The agreement was signed by BPKIHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Smriti Karki, Prof Dr Bishnu Dutt Paudel, Nepal lead for TWCC, and a representative of NHCC.

Consultations and treatment advice via telemedicine will take place every Thursday for critically ill patients who are unable to travel to hospital. Because of a nationwide shortage of cancer specialists, including at BPKIHS, the service will initially focus on cancer patients.

The service was formally inaugurated in the presence of TWCC President and medical oncologist Dr Puneet Bains, Prof Dr Bishnu Dutt Paudel, and Dr Sonia Dulal. On the day of the launch, local medical teams presented three complex cases from Tehrathum and Solukhumbu districts and received guidance on symptom management and further consultation through the telemedicine link.

Operating as a pilot project for the first time in Nepal, the initiative has received facilitation and support from the Koshi Province Ministry of Health. The provincial government selected permanent doctors and nurses from district hospitals to lead the local teams; those healthcare professionals completed a five-day residential training programme supervised by Prof Dr Bishnu Dutt Paudel and BPKIHS medical oncologist Dr Sonia Dulal. Medical specialists from various disciplines are contributing their services on a voluntary basis.

The provincial health ministry has pledged full assistance to establish telemedicine set-ups across all 14 districts and to support the long-term sustainability of the programme. The expansion will allow patients with complex conditions to access specialist consultations through local health workers in their own villages, reducing the financial burden of travel, the hardship of long journeys, and pressure on hospital beds.

Over the two years, project leaders plan to evaluate the initiative’s effectiveness, work towards sustainability, and extend the model to other provinces. There are also plans to broaden the service to patients with other diseases that require palliative care.

Palliative care is provided to patients with complex and incurable conditions such as cancer, chronic kidney disease, severe heart and liver ailments, serious respiratory diseases, and neurological disorders. Its primary aim is to reduce physical pain and improve quality of life rather than to cure the underlying disease.