Nepal to provide more doctors and rescue equipment at Everest base camp

Nepal Govt. has decided to provide more doctors and rescue equipment at Everest base camp. Nepal and the mountaineering world were shaken last year after 16 local guides were killed by an ice avalanche. The incident, Everest's deadliest, prompted calls for fundamental reform of the way commercial expeditions are managed and more protection for support staff working with fee-paying climbers.

According to Devi Bahadur Koirala, of the Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal, four doctors, rather than the previous two or three, would be stationed in the emergency room tent at base camp, at 17,380ft (5,300m). Rescue helicopters would airlift the sick or injured out from base camp within 90 minutes, Koirala added. Previously, each team had to arrange its own rescue, which would often take hours.

Climbers would first be treated at the base camp, at 17,380ft, and then flown to a clinic at lower altitude and, if necessary, to Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/17/doctors-rescue-equipment-everest-base-camp-busiest-season