A few weeks ago a journalist called the hospital and said he would like to interview the director about an award.  It was a complete surprise when he told us that this hospital had been awarded the Best Hospital Award from ‘Swasthiya Kabar Patrika”, a monthly health magazine.  This is a national award and the selection committee had evaluated various nominated hospitals before deciding that ours was best.

The annual Health Awards ceremony was held at the Everest Hotel in Kathmandu on the evening of Sunday 22nd July and was broadcast live on Nepal TV. It was almost like a mini Oscar awards ceremony! Eight different people received an award to recognize their contribution to specific areas of health in Nepal.

"And the award for the Best Hospital goes to... United Mission Hospital Tansen."

For photos of the ceremony, click here.

Despite Nepal being the second water-richest country in the world the infrastructure is not in place to capture it, with the vast majority flowing away down to India.

As a result Nepal as a country frequently faces the problem of water shortage and long lines of people can be seen queuing for water during the dry season. Here at the hospital over the years we have built storage tanks to allow us to capture and retain as much water as possible, however due to increasing patient numbers our resources are being stretched. The past few years we have had to buy water in via tankers to keep the hospital running.

As you can imagine, providing good care care to patients requires a consistent source of water.  Due to the mountanous terrain, it is difficult to drill wells.  Most of the water in the area comes from springs or small rivers.  An important supplemental source of water is rainwater.  We try to harvest rain water by having gutters which are connected to underground water tanks.  During the monsoon season, the rain water exceeds the capacity of all of our water tanks.  If this water could be collected and stored, it would help us through the dry months of summer.  At times when the water level is low, we have to cancel surgery or send patients away.

We have obtained a construction estimate. The design of the underground water tank needs to be sufficiently robust to withstand earthquakes and land shifts (which are common in this region). The tank would hold 1 million litres of water, and the projected is estimated to cost US$ 250,000. A tank this size and of this quality would allow us to provide water for our hospital's needs for many, many years to come.

Please do pray about this as it is clearly a huge undertaking, but one we feel will be a huge asset to the hospital for the future. If you would like to donate towards this you can send money directly or by cheque. Please see p15 of Friends of Tansen showing options for giving.

Thank you.

We are always looking for long-term GPs and surgeons to come and work at Tansen Mission Hospital. Terms range from 1 year upwards. Having this sort of continuity really aids the stability and smooth running of hospital services and allows us to deliver a consistent standard of medical care to Tansen and the surrounding communities. For more information click on the specialty above.

For information on our full list of staffing needs please click here.