Kathmandu: Dr Bijay Thapa has been elected the Chair of the Nepalese Association of Paediatric Surgeons. The election took place during the eighth Annual General Meeting of the Society, resulting in a 10-member leadership team headed by Dr Thapa.
According to National News Agency Nepal, the newly elected executive committee includes Dr Nripesh Rajbhandari as vice-president, Dr Dinesh Koirala as general secretary, Dr Jasmine Bajracharya as secretary, Dr Bal Mukund Basnet as treasurer, and Dr Shirish Silwal as joint-treasurer. Additionally, Dr Hiramani Pathak, Dr Nishant Singh, Dr Anu Maharjan, and Dr Sulochana Dahal have been elected as members of the committee.
The Nepalese Association of Paediatric Surgeons, established in 2015, currently consists of 35 paediatric surgeons. Dr Thapa highlighted the limited number of pediatric surgeons in Nepal and the job security issues faced by the available workforce. He emphasized the unmet goals in the field of pediatric surgery due to the shortage of specialists and urged the government to invest in training more paediatric surgeons and ensure their availability across all provinces.