The Dental Department of the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) in Thimphu now treats walk-in patients. Earlier, with the dental services made available only through an appointment system, people had to wait for weeks to avail themselves of such services.
Eight months after the appointment system was initiated, the dental department says it is inconvenient for people who need immediate dental healthcare. The appointment system was initiated with an objective to reduce patients waiting time and provide quality consultation.
“With the appointment system, some people do not show up after making an appointment, while some appointments get clashed. This was causing a lot of problems to the receptionist as well as in the department. Also, when all the tokens are issued, people who come after that used to get an appointment only after two to three weeks,” Dr Karma Tobgay, the Head of Dental Department, said.
With the dual system in place, doctors will see walk-in patients from 9 am to 11 am. The number of tokens is limited to 50 patients a day. The remaining patients can choose to fix an appointment for which the timing is from 11 am to 3 pm. They can also choose to walk-in the next day.
“I feel the new system is more convenient. We never know when we would fall sick. So during an emergency, we can opt to walk in. On the other hand, for treatments like filling up or extracting a tooth, we can fix an appointment as per our convenience,” Thuji Penjor, a Patient, said.
At present, there are 10 chambers in the Department with five designated for the specialists.
