Tawpo, 69, will now not have to come all the way to Thimphu to get medical services whenever he is sick. His village, Hongtsho, under Chang Gewog in Thimphu got a new grade II Basic Health Unit (BHU) yesterday.
Excited, the villagers collected money to organise the inaugural ceremony themselves.
Tawpo said the BHU will be of great benefit to his community. “The government has provided the resources to build us such a big BHU. We thought that the least we could do was organise the inaugural ceremony. We discussed with our Tshogpa and contributed for the ceremony as a community.”
The village Tshogpa, Karma Gyeltshen, said because of the large number of people it was very difficult to get medical services in Thimphu easily. “We see long queue in Thimphu hospital. We might be in a bad state but we can’t jump the line because that would be against the rules. So when we are sick, we can get our medicine from our BHU and avoid getting more serious. We will receive treatment here.”
The BHU with two Health Assistants will provide basic health services to about 360 households.
Karma Yangden like her neighbour Tawpo believes that the BHU will make life easier in Hongtsho. “In the future even if we get sick or our children get sick, we won’t need to go all the way to Thimphu. It’s just five minutes away now and very convenient for us, that is why, when the government has spent so much, we decided to work together to organize the ceremony,” said Karma Yangden.
The community only had an outreach clinic in the past. The BHU was constructed at a cost of Nu. 10.2 million. Funds came from the Small Development Project funded by the Government of India. The community in Hongtso is thankful for their new BHU, and appears to understand accountability in spite of the BHU having been built by the government.
