Medical: To make people aware of the workload of staff at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH), its activities and various departments, the hospital launched its first annual report yesterday.

Health minister Tandin Wangchuk said that it is important to educate people about the hospital’s services and also to make people aware of the health worker’s workload.

Lyonpo explained that it is not simply to show that the health workers are working  hard to serve the people, but to make people aware of what the health workers go through everyday to provide services to patients.

“Appreciating the health workers’ services will motivate them to work harder and provide best services to the patients,” Lyonpo said.

Lyonpo added that it is important for people to understand that there will be some flaws while providing services to patients and it is equally important to understand and consider what the health workers go through daily.

The president of the referral hospital, Lhab Dorji said that the workload of the hospital has been increasing every year.

The number of outpatients visiting the hospital last year increased by 29,968 patients from 494,792 in 2014.

Of a total of 524,760 outpatients, the general outpatient (OPD) department has the highest number of visited patients at 87,960, followed by the community health department’s OPD at 68,580, and pediatric OPD and dental OPD at 63,588 and 63,011 patients respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of surgeries performed at the hospital last year increased to 7,669 from 6,743 in 2014.

The number of deliveries and caesarean sections in 2015 stand at 4,035 and 1,033 respectively.

“This is a huge load to be handled by 71 specialists and ten general doctors,” Lhab Dorji added.

The hospital is challenged to meet the demands for quick specialised services and quality patient care when compared with corporate hospitals in the neighbouring countries, he said. “Because of limited manpower, the number of patients seen by a doctor in a day is far over the normal capacity, and quality of patient care is still a challenge.”

However, Lhab Dorji said that the hospital is trying its best to improve the services, meet the demands of the people and strive to achieve visions, mission and goals to take JDWNRH to the pinnacle of health services.

The number of beds was increased from 350 to 381 last year, while the report shows that the inpatient admission in the hospital last year reduced to 16,487 from 18,560 in 2014.

In recent years, the hospital has added several tertiary services like neurosurgery, urological services, cancer surgery, and adult, pediatric and neonatal intensive care services, among others.

Medical superintendent, Dr Gosar Pemba said that the backbone of the hospital’s service delivery is the administration division. The division is also being strengthened to improve the delivery of clinical services.

Lhab Dorji said that the referral hospital is the apex tertiary level referral centre for the entire country. It functions as the western region referral hospital, Thimphu dzongkhag’s hospital and also as the teaching hospital for the Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan.

The hospital has now 19 departments and 903 employees including the president, technicians and support staff. Hereafter, the hospital will publish a report annually.

Dechen Tshomo