Tshering Namgyal | Mongar

Health minister Dechen Wangmo visited the construction site of the 65-bed Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) for eastern Bhutan on March 9, and said the government targets to make the hospital operational in three years.

The MCH will be constructed in the premises of the Royal Guest House, which His Majesty gifted to the people of eastern Bhutan to be converted into a Covid-19 isolation ward.

The hospital will have specialists for mothers and children.

Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo said that having a dedicated hospital for mother and childcare had become a necessity for the eastern population, and the new MCH would provide equitable and quality mother and child health care services to the people without them having to travel to the capital to avail the same services.

She said the new MCH in the east would be a model hospital with world class facilities and additional structures built as per the green hospital concept, with an ideation to adapt with the existing building, natural vegetation, site terrain and climatic conditions.

Showing the design of the new hospital to officials, Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo said the Royal Guesthouse would be converted to a Community Health Department, and the additional structures would house in-patient department, emergency or diagnostics department and out patient department.

The total cost of the construction project is estimated at Nu 681 million, and the construction is expected to take less than 36 months.

Health officials said equipment and staff would be deployed as per the standard for 65-bedded MCH.

They also said health ministry was also working towards training human resources and procurement of medical equipment to ensure the functioning of the MCH hospital soon after its completion.