Report on Nepal conference 2012

The national conference of General Practitioners’ Association of Nepal (GPAN) Conference was held in the beautiful city of Dharan, Nepal, from November 25–26, organized by General Practitioners’ Association of Nepal (GPAN) and Department of General Practice and Emergency Medicine, BP Koirala Institute of Health Science, Dharan. The conference was mostly about scaling up capacity building in general practice and primary health in Nepal.

There were over 300 delegates from different parts of the country and international guests from Bangladesh, India and Australia. Prof Balbhadra Prasad Das, Vice chancellor of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences with President of GPAN Prof Dr Pratap Narayan Prasad, inaugurated the conference. Prof Pratap Prasad delivered the welcome speech in the inauguration ceremony and he also spoke about current development in the field of general practice, in Nepal. The inauguration ceremony was completed by delivering vote of thanks by Dr Pramendra Prasad Gupta, organizing secretary of conference.


Photo: Prof Kanu Gopal Bala, Bangladesh(left) and Prof Pratap Prasad

The theme of the conference was Role of General Practitioners in Primary health and emergency care-present and future. The keynote speaker, Prof Kanu Gopal Bala, from Bangladesh, spoke on the theme. Dr Gunaraj Lohani, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Health Sciences, who was the national guest speaker, spoke about advocacy of general practitioners in Nepal.

The Nepal Government has announced that the higher authority post of district hospitals and primary care centers, will be given to general practitioners, in 23 districts of Nepal. It has also been announced to open a Department of General Practice and Emergency Medicine in every medical college of Nepal and to be added in the curriculum of undergraduate students soon.

Other guest speakers spoke about the present condition of family medicine in their countries. There were total 25 oral paper presentation and eight poster presentations. Each paper was of different diversities from the field of general practice and reflects the theme of the conference.


Photo: (l to r) Dr Raman Kumar (from India), Dr Pramendra Prasad Gupta, and Prof Pratap Prasad.

Dr Pramendra Prasad Gupta delivered the last plenary about the Spice Route Movement (the WONCA South Asia Region group for new and future family doctors) with Dr Raman Kumar.
The evening of November 25 was packed with a cultural programme, a welcome cocktail and a conference banquet.

Ultimately it was a memorable GPAN conference in Nepal.

Prof Pratap Prasad & Dr Pramendra Prasad Gupta
President & General Secretary,
GPAN Organising Committee

Link to Report of Prof Kanu Gopal Bala, President, Bangladesh Academy of Family Physicians