Bhutan health help centre

A pregnant woman in Tongla village in Khenghar Mongar had retained the placenta after delivery. The health assistant, who was in the village, a two-hour walk uphill from the nearest road, dialed 112.

By the time she reached the road head, an ambulance was waiting for her and whisked her off to Mongar hospital. “We could have lost her if it hadn’t been for this service,” the health ministry’s director general Dr Dorji Wangchuk said.

Even as the health help centre (HHC) was formally launched yesterday, the centre in Thimphu was buzzing with calls from remote Bhutan.

A bull had gored a man in Lhuentse, while another call was about a woman, who was having labour pain in Bumthang. Ambulances were dispatched immediately to bring them to the nearest health facility.

Riding on information technology (IT), access to health services across the country is now just a phone call away.

Dial 112, a toll free number for emergencies, advice, and information and for an ambulance if the patient needs to be taken to a doctor.

This facility, health officials said, has now bridged the gap of accessibility and optimised the services of medical professionals, which has been difficult given the terrain and doctor shortage. Statistics show that 40 percent of the population is still an hours walk away from the nearest health center.

“The more free health care services you provide, the more inequality you create; because, while the literate make the most of it, the poor and illiterate are unable to access it,” health minister Zangley Dukpa said at the launch yesterday. “This is one of the reasons why we’re launching the ICT enabled health care service through the health help centre.”

The HHC regulates 61 ambulances stationed in 37 locations in hospitals, with 59 emergency medical technicians (EMT) posted across the country, the centre’s chief executive officer Dr NB Rai said.

Its nationwide service kicked off informally on April 4 and has since then served 2,497 cases to date. Of these, 291 were referrals between hospitals and 544 were emergencies the centre handled from all districts, except Gasa, Dr NB Rai said.

The centre also received 589 cases of healthcare management services where callers were advised, counselled and given e-prescription through SMS. The emergency physician saw 35 cases.

Prank calls have been an issue since operations started. Between February 5 and May 1, the centre recorded 6,895 prank calls, almost thrice the number of “valid” 2,479 emergency calls. On an average, the centre receives about 70 valid calls everyday.

“We even get calls from people asking for momos,” Dr NB Rai said.

Once, the centre received a call from a man who was panicking because his wife was about to deliver. “We sent an ambulance immediately with a EMT and later learnt that it was another man, who was mimicking a woman in labour pain,” he said.

In another case, the centre sent an ambulance to Hontsho only to find no one there and the cell phone switched off. “It’s shameful,” Dr Sudhakar from ProCreate techno systems, one of the consultants from India, said.

The system has back up servers and will run even during power failures, explained the consultants. Chief executive officer of Orange business services in India, Bala Mahadevan, said it is run on a very advanced system that can be scaled up according to the calls the centre receives.

An initiative under the accelerating Bhutan’s socio economic development program, the HHC is set up and operationalised at the cost of Nu 34M in nine months by a consortium of Regal information technology, Thimphu, Equant technology services and ProCreate techno systems, India.

Officials said 25 people could call the centre that is manned by 15 people and two doctors. HCC’s focal person, Gaki said data generated from the center could also be used for evidence based planning.

“The need for a specialised service provider will be optimised and with IT you save costs and provide faster and quality services,” health secretary Dasho (Dr) Gado Tshering said.

Source: Kuenselonline