MEDICS from Swindon are helping hundreds of Nepali people hear again.

A team of four doctors and nurses from the Great Western Hospital and the BMI Ridgeway Hospital have just returned from a two week stint in Nepal.

Working alongside other UK and Nepali surgeons, the team operated on almost 200 sick patients – fixing torn ear drums and poor hearing.

It was the sixth trip to Nepal for GWH consultant surgeon and team leader Angus Waddell, volunteering with charity Britain Nepal Otology Service (BRINOS).

Angus, who flew out to Nepal on his first BRINOS expedition in 2008, said: “When the charity started in 1991, Nepal – which is a country now of about 27 million people – only had one surgeon for eyes and ears.”

Poor living conditions in rural areas means that ear disease is prevalent in Nepal. Damp homes and smog, which can cause problems with the lungs, also affects the delicate skin membranes in the ear.

“About 10 per cent of the population have holes in their eardrums,” Angus said.

“BRINOS was set up to treat ear disease in the country, train ear, nose and throat surgeons to do it, and train community ear assistants.”

Their aim is to reduce people’s reliance on folk remedies like popping eardrums and even pouring cow’s urine into their ears. Angus said: “In Nepal, cow’s urine sells for more than cow’s milk.”

Before the team fly in to the remote south west town of Nepalgunj, a group of community ear assistants diagnose patients’ problems and draw up an operating list for the surgeons.

The doctors work hard, with up to three operations happening at once in beds set up in the same theatre. The purpose-built hospital cost the equivalent of £250,000.

Angus said: “You rotate from one bed to the next. We’ve all seen the patients together beforehand, so we’ve all got the same plan.

“We could all do each of the operations. But, essentially, we take it in turns.

“The theatre efficiency is fantastic. It’s immensely more productive than here.”

Follow-up appointments with the community ear assistants ensure that patients stay on the road to recovery.

Working independently is vital for the small teams. Angus said of the main lesson he brought back from Nepal to the UK: “Clinical teams of doctors and nurses make really good decisions. Having clinically-led teams is really important.

“That means they are able to see more clearly what does and doesn’t need to be done, so they can use their time wisely.

“In ten days we did 185 major ear operations. Here at GWH we do about 130 in a year.”

It will be two years before Angus, who has just started a new job as associate medical director at GWH, returns to Nepal.

He said: “I think my family are secretly quite proud that I do this. But it is really hard on my wife. She has a lot of work to do - she’s a doctor too.”

Angus, who also runs GWH’s vertigo clinic, will give a talk about dizziness at the Marlborough Road hospital on Thursday, December 7, at 6pm. To book, email: gwh.foundation.trust@nhs.net.