During the question hour session in the National Assembly today, Jomotshangkha-Martshala’s member of parliament Norbu Wangzom raised the concern of timely referral of patients and challenges faced by the patients and their attendants in India. The MP highlighted that cancer patients and their attendants are facing accommodation problems as they have to stay in India for years. However, the health minister said there is no delay in referral services while sharing the ministry’s plans to start medical services requiring ex-country referrals.
Responding to the question, health minister Dechen Wangmo said there is no delay in referring a patient outside the country as the ministry sends the patient right after the final diagnosis of a disease.
“For now, I would like to say that there is no delay in the referral of patients from JDWNRH. However, how people perceive is, there are a lot of procedures and checkups that need to be done before referring a patient. Because we need to confirm the biopsy and for that, we have to send it to Dr Lal PathLabs in India. Moreover, we also need to check the schedule of the doctors that we are sending our patients to.
The health minister added that the country has plans to start a multi-disciplinary hospital soon that will provide medical services that currently require ex-country referrals.
The minister said that for now, cancer patients are sent outside for surgery and follow-up treatment such as chemotherapy is done in the country. Similarly, there are plans to start a few medical services soon.
Lyonpo added the health ministry has plans to start kidney transplants in the country.
“For kidney transplant, if we can, we are planning to bring the service to the country by August. Making it convenient for the patients where they can also be near their families. We are going to communicate with the experts from Thailand and introduce the service at the national hospital.”
Lyonpo further said that every year, the government spends around Nu 1bn on the referral of patients.
Devika Pradhan
