Emergencies in Pokhara

Good to Know

• Nepal does not have one all-purpose emergency number like 911 or 112 — you need to dial the specific service: 100 for police, 101 for fire, 102 for ambulance.
• The Tourist Police (1144) is genuinely useful in Pokhara for theft, scams, or lost documents — officers near Lakeside are used to dealing with foreign visitors and generally speak English.
• If you're heading out on an Annapurna-area trek from Pokhara, save your trekking agency's emergency contact and the Himalayan Rescue Association number before you leave cell coverage, since rescue coordination in the mountains is different from city emergency response.
• Response times for emergency services can be slower than in many Western cities, especially outside the main Lakeside/tourist strip — having a hotel or local contact who speaks Nepali can speed things up.
• For serious trauma (major accidents, head injuries, fractures requiring surgery), Manipal Teaching Hospital in Fulbari is generally regarded as Pokhara's best-equipped option, given its size, ICU capacity, and full-time on-call specialists across orthopedics, general surgery and neurosurgery.
• CIWEC Hospital in Lakeside is a popular first stop for travelers/expats for altitude sickness, travel illness, rabies exposure and general urgent care, but it is not primarily a trauma/surgical hospital — for major injuries you'll likely be referred or transferred to Manipal or the government teaching hospital.
• Nepal does not use a formal US-style Level I/II/III trauma center rating system, so no hospital in Pokhara carries an official 'trauma level' designation — descriptions above reflect how each hospital describes its own emergency/trauma capability.
• Always call ahead if possible (e.g., via a hotel or guide) since availability of specialists, blood products, or specific imaging (like MRI) can vary between the private hospitals.