Kidu mobile medical unit caters to 100 patients a day during lockdown 

Chhimi Dema

The country may have been under a complete lockdown for the last 21 days, but the medical needs of patients and elderlies, the most vulnerable, were taken care with service delivered at the doorsteps.

This was made possible by His Majesty’s Kidu Mobile Medical Unit (KMMU). A team consisting of seven members monitored the health of about 100 individuals in a day in Thimphu during the lockdown.

The head of the KMMU, Dr Phurb Dorji, said that the team checks and monitors the health of 56 individuals, 28 patients and their attendants residing at the Kidu Patient Guest House in Thimphu currently.  The team also attends to the health of individuals in a temporary shelter for the homeless at Rinchen Kuenphen Primary School.

“We have the specific responsibility to give Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen’s Soelra to mothers and newborns during the lockdown in the country,” Dr Phurb said. The team also caters to the needs of the 32 elderly people residing at the Goensho Tshamkhang, a retreat for elderly people, in Wangsisina, Thimphu.

Besides these, Dr Phurb Dorji said that the KMMU team caters to 36 patients visiting the Kidu Medical Service Centre (KMSC) for dialysis every day and monitors patients from the cancer ward of the national referral hospital, which was shifted to the KMSC building.

Given the expertise with the KMMU, it also supplemented the needs of the national referral hospital by providing tele-consultations in the paediatric and the dental department, and to high-risk pregnancy patients in the gynaecology and obstetrics department.

The team of KMMU consists of gynaecologists, senior paediatrician, prosthodontics, senior nurses with expertise in pain management, senior nurse anaesthetic, general duty medical officer and two drivers.

His Majesty’s Kidu Mobile Medical Unit was initiated in 2009 upon Royal Command to give access to specialised healthcare to people who live far away from the capital.