An Oxford surgeon is preparing to spend a year working in a mission hospital in Nepal.

Mike Puttick, his doctor wife Sarah, and their son Alexander, four, and twin daughters Mari and Caragh, both two, are excited about the trip.

Mr Puttick, of Marlborough Road, South Oxford, a registrar in general surgery with two years left on his training programme, will be working in the United Mission Hospital in Tansen.

He said: "Sarah and I have always wanted to do mission work and work in Asia. Sarah's father was a missionary in Nepal for 23 years. She was there until she was 13, so it seemed like a natural destination."

Mr Puttick is mainly based at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, but also works in Northampton and Stoke Mandeville hospitals.

He said: "A lot of my work is doing intestinal surgery. In Nepal I'll be working in a much more basic environ- ment."

He said in Oxfordshire, between the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Horton Hospital in Banbury there were 800 beds, compared to 130 for a geographical area of a similar size in Nepal.

"Transport is difficult and people don't go to hospital unless they really have to and patients may have to walk for days to get there.

"In the UK if someone has a small complaint they get it checked out. Over there they don't get medical help unless it's really bad and life expectancy is much shorter," he said.

Mr Puttick said a lot of his UK work tended to be treating cancer patients, usually aged 60 and above, but in Nepal people rarely reached the age of 60.

His work will include teaching a primary trauma care course which was devised by two Christian medics in Oxford. He said: "That is teaching people how to deal with major accidents in the developing world."

Mr Puttick, a Christian, said his motivation for heading for Nepal were summed up from the Bible's Book of Isaiah, where it talks about setting the oppressed free.

Mrs Puttick will spend most of the time in Nepal looking after the couple's children, but is hoping to carry out some work training anaesthetists at the hospital.

He said: "We are excited about it. The work will involve a lot of things I haven't seen before and I'll be functioning at a level much more senior than I am here.

"We are a bit nervous about moving with three children under five. The flight is one thing but buses on Third World roads will be interesting. There are definite risks but I think it will be a great experience as well."