Bhutan joined the global community to mark the Third Global Clinical Engineering Day yesterday. The day was observed at the Gelegphu Central Regional Referral Hospital.
The theme this year was Engineers in Pursuit of Nation with Best Health.
The need to strengthen clinical engineering in the health sector was expressed at the event.
Clinical engineering is generally defined as a specialty within Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) biomedical engineering responsible primarily for applying and implementing medical technology to optimize healthcare delivery.
The Medical Superintendent of the Gelegphu Central Regional Referral Hospital, Tapash Gurung, said equipping hospitals with clinical engineers would help ensure all medical equipment are in good order.
The Gelegphu Central Regional Refferal Hospital has three clinical technicians. But Dr Tapash Gurung said the hospital technicians cannot fix all machine breakdowns.
“In such times, the hospital has to wait for the headquarters to depute an engineer. This, in the process, delays healthcare service delivery,” Dr Tapash Gurung said.
Meanwhile, the Bio Medical Engineering Division (BMED) will initiate Electrical Safety Testing of Medical Equipment in all hospitals across 20 dzongkhags.
The initiative started from Gelegphu Central regional Referral hospital yesterday coinciding with the celebration of the Third Global Clinical Engineering Day.
The Global Clinical Engineering Day, observed on October 21, is a worldwide celebration recognising the important contributions of clinical engineers to the improvement of world population’s health and wellness.
The first Global Clinical Engineering Day was first observed in 2016.