With sports gaining popularity in the country, the need for sports medicine specialists is also becoming increasingly important. As of today, the country has just a couple of specialised sports physicians and only one sports surgeon. Due to the shortage, many athletes are left with limited access to the care they need to maintain fitness and the longevity of their careers.
Tandin Wangchuk is a volleyball coach with the Bhutan Volleyball Federation. He says that aside from the Bhutan Football Federation, no other sports federation in the country has dedicated sports physicians as of now.
This has resulted in athletes playing other sports having to seek treatment from general physicians or even go to great lengths to receive specialised care.
“There are cases of Bhutanese athletes having to seek therapy and treatment for sports injuries in other countries. If we have an expert in sports physiotherapy in the country, athletes wouldn’t have to go through all that trouble,” said Tandin Wangchuk, National Volleyball Coach.
Presently, all four dedicated sports physicians in the country work for the Bhutan Football Federation. One of them, Sonam Sonam, has been working as a full-time sports physician for almost nine years now. He explained why it is important to have specialised care for athletes for their health and career.
“As sports physicians, we focus on treating athletes. For example, muscle strains. A sports physician can identify and treat a muscle strain and recommend an optimal resting period for athletes. However, in hospitals, they do not differentiate between an athlete and a non-athlete. This can have a detrimental effect on their careers,” said Sonam Sonam, Sports Physician of the Bhutan Football Federation.
With a background in sports medicine and arthroscopy, Dr Santiram Dhakal is the country’s only sports surgeon. He says as he also looks after the general patients, he cannot prioritise his services to the athletes.
This he says is one of the biggest challenges he faces in treating athletes as it usually becomes too late when injuries are detected. For instance, he already has sports-related surgery bookings till August, this year
“An athlete who gets his appointment ten patients later has to wait for nine patients for me to finish seeing, and then they will get their chance. There is no mechanism where we can give priority to athletes, the system doesn’t allow that today. That’s a suggestion that we can all work on so that our athletes get access to sports physicians and surgeons,” said Dr Santiram Dhakal, Orthopedic Surgeon.
He added that most of the injuries he comes across from athletes are meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament or ACL injuries which are injuries inside the knee.
Besides the shortage of sports medicine specialists, as there is only one MRI machine in the country, the detection of injuries that need surgeries is also difficult.
Meanwhile, the Bhutan Olympic Committee is currently exploring ways to provide better training facilities to athletes. The office hopes to bring in more specialised healthcare professionals for Bhutanese athletes in the future.
Karma Samten Wangda
Edited by Kipchu
