People can look forward to mobile medical vans, with a doctor coming to the gewogs once a month. The health ministry will be procuring 27 mobile medical vans with support from the Asian Development Bank this year. This is to make healthcare services accessible across the country, even at the grassroots level.
The health minister Tandin Wangchuk said that each district will have at least one mobile van. However, the minister said they are yet to decide on when the service will begin.
He said stationing a doctor in primary healthcare centres will be difficult due to lack of human resource but the mobile medical vans will ensure every individual gets proper healthcare services.
“Once a month, the medical van will come to a place on a particular date and people will come to seek the healthcare service.”
Moreover, the ministry will adopt reaching the unreachable model, where a specialised camp will periodically deliver healthcare services to underserved populations.
For instance, specialists from the national referral hospitals will be deployed to regional referral hospitals to carry out specialised camps.
The health minister said, “Similarly, the regional hospital goes to the cluster hospital. We have designated ten cluster hospitals and seven cluster hospitals have been established for now. Likewise, the district hospital provides healthcare services in the rural healthcare centres.”
He added that the health ministry will continue to work with international partners such as the Himalayan Cataract Foundation and Interplast to provide specialised services to remote communities through well-planned outreach programmes.
Further, the ministry will adopt “Evidence-Informed Approach” by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan. This will ensure health infrastructure expansion by taking population size, caseloads, and road accessibility into consideration.
Singye Dema
Edited by Tshering Zam
