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Current Status of Healthcare in Nepal
With an average life expectancy of 70.2 years and 30 out of 1000 people dying
before the age of 5, Nepal cannot be said as a healthy place to live.
Below are three main reasons.
Lifestyle Disease
It accounts for 66% of the death rate in Nepal and has become more serious in recent years due to its chronic and expensive treatment. Respiratory diseases due to smoking, air pollution and malnutrition are on the rise.
Infectious Disease
About half of the population does not have access to proper toilets due to inadequate sewage systems. Diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, and tuberculosis are the leading causes of death.
Maternal and child health
Infant and maternal mortality rates remain high. The leading cause of death in infant mortality is diarrhea, often attributed to the difficulty in securing sanitary water and low maternal health literacy.
The reason why these medical issues remain is that
access to medical care is difficult in Nepal, especially in rural areas.
Issues of Access to Health Care in Rural Nepal
１
Not enough medical care
1-1. Lack of quantity and difficulty in physical access
There is a lack of medical facilities in rural Nepal. Because of the mountainous nature of Nepal, many roads are poorly maintained, and it is common that the nearest medical facility will be several hours walk away. In such areas, it is impossible to get medical care immediately when it is needed.
1-2：Lack of advanced medical care
In rural areas, in addition to the limitation of medical facilities, many of them are run by health assistants and other medical professionals whose medical practice is limited, and even the central medical facilities are not capable of making advanced medical decisions. It is necessary to go to a large town when undergoing tests using equipment, surgery and hospitalization are needed which is commonly available in Japan.
1-3: Disparate individual medical services
In Nepal, the system for cooperation among medical institutions is not yet fully developed. In addition, in Nepal, patients take their medical records home with them after each consultation, but mostly they are forgotten or lost. As a result, medical institutions are unable to accurately grasp the past diagnosis and treatment of patients, making it difficult to provide continuous medical care.
2
Low health literacy
People do not have a proper understanding of their own bodies and are not able to prevent diseases or provide the necessary first aid in case of emergency. Some people choose not to go to medical facilities, believing in old superstitions such as "diarrhea is the work of the devil."
3
No mechanism for improvement
Local governments also keep only paper-based information for reporting purposes, which makes it impossible to grasp the current situation quantitatively and to optimize resources and implement measures based on needs.
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