COUNTRY BACKGROUND - Gross National Happiness Commission

Health Services
these services through a 4 tier health care system (see Map 13.1 Health Facilities).
Peripheral LevelPeripheral Level
13.4 Basic Health Units (BHUs) and their peripheral health posts and outreach clinics are the main links between
the rural population and hospitals. Each BHU covers 3-6 outreach clinics. A Basic Health Unit is usually manned
by a health assistant, an auxiliary nurse midwife and a basic health worker. BHUs and outreach clinics are further
supported by a network of voluntary village health workers. There are about 900 trained voluntary village health
workers. They are provided with a basic kit containing few essential drugs, bandages and some teaching materials.
Referral of patients from the village to the BHUs is usually the responsibility of the voluntary health worker.
Community Health Units (CHUs) are also being established and extended from all district hospitals and regional
referral hospitals. Community Health Units will act as "a hospital without walls" to deliver promotive and
preventive aspects of health service to the population around hospitals.
District LevelDistrict Level
13.5 A first level referral services are provided by district hospitals, of which there were 16 in 1991. A district
hospital has personnel and equipments which would enable it to give life saving emergency services, promotive,
preventive and curative services.
Regional LevelRegional Level
13.6 Second level referral hospitals are regional hospitals. Thimphu General Hospital is the regional hospital for
Western region, Damphu Hospital for Central region and Tashigang Hospital for Eastern region. These three
regional hospitals provide specialised services.
National LevelNational Level
13.7 Thimphu General Hospital serves both as a National Referral Hospital and the regional hospital for Western
Bhutan. Thimphu Hospital has 200 beds and provides the following special services: surgery, obstetrics,
ophthalmology, ENT, paediatrics, orthopaedics, dermatology, dentistry and anaesthesiology.
Indigenous MedicineIndigenous Medicine
13.8 For many centuries, treatment of illness in Bhutan depended on indigenous medicine - So wa rigpa. Since
1967, indigenous medicine has been officially recognised as a parallel scientific system of health service. The
National Research and Training Institute of Bhutanese Traditional Medicine in Thimphu serves as an outpatient
facility. In addition, there are 6 indigenous dispensaries around the country located in the neighbourhood of modern
hospitals. In 1989 about 18,956 clients consulted Thimphu Indigenous Hospital and another 17,730 patients
attended the dispensaries. Indigenous medicine is frequently augmented by treatment of illness sought through
ritual and spiritual means. Because of the easy access to remedies of ritual and spiritual kind, modern health
facilities are often sought as a last resort resulting in diagnostic and therapeutic delays.
Training InstitutionsTraining Institutions
13.9 The Department of Health Services runs three training institutions: the Royal Institute of Health Science in
Thimphu, the National Institute of Family Planning in Geylegphug and the Indigenous Medicine Training Centre in
Thimphu.
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