The Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) is seeing over a thousand people visiting on a daily basis. Physical distancing at the hospital is becoming a challenge with many people still unaware of the Druk Trace App, and health workers resorting to registering the details manually.
Health workers at the hospital say many people are still unfamiliar with the recently launched Druk Trace App, which will help in tracing contacts in case of a positive case of COVID-19 from a locality. To keep a record of those visiting the place, details are recorded manually. This is time-consuming and moreover long lines of people waiting to get registered results in overcrowding. According to the health workers, some people also visit the hospital unnecessarily which adds to the burden of registrations and overcrowding.
Dr Gosar Pemba, the Medical Superintendent at the JDWNRH says people visiting the hospital should have the Druk Trace App installed in their phone to save their time and the time of the health workers as well. “If a person does not have the app, he or she has to manually register their details which is consuming a lot of time. And then it leads to a long line of people and overcrowding. We have many Desuups helping us in the hospital and I urge the people to cooperate with them as well. Some people bring in many patient attendants and children to the hospital. I want to request everyone to refrain from doing that,” he said.
He also added that due to the pandemic, many new rules and regulations are implemented in the hospital. Over a 50 Desuups and security personnel are monitoring the movement and controlling crowd at the hospital. However, owing to the large number of people visiting the hospital, the job becomes difficult for them at times.
“Some people say they don’t have the App. But some even lie to us saying that they do not have the app and ask us to register their details manually. It is time consuming and leading to overcrowding every day. Some people even go to the extent of forcing their entry without even registering. I want to request everyone to please cooperate with us,” added Harka Bdr Pradhan, the Security Head for Jachung Security Services at the JDWNRH.
To avoid overcrowding and enhance physical distancing, signs, information boards and directions are put up in the hospital. The hospital has also identified seven entry and exit points to control the crowd and to maintain physical distance.
Tshering Dendup
