Home > About Town > Bhutan’s first medical college to come up in Serbithang

Bhutan’s first medical college to come up in Serbithang

8 March 2010

The site for the construc­tion of Bhutan’s first medi­cal college, Bhutan Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS), has been identified above the Royal Botanical Garden in Serbithang, Thimphu.

Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) will be designat­ed as a teaching hospital.

JDWNRH has 17 clini­cal departments out of 20 required for a medical col­lege. Anatomy, biochemistry and physiology departments, hostels, staff quarters, guest house and other facilities will be constructed in Serbithang.

As a temporary measure, in the first year classes will be conducted in the old wards of JDWNRH. Within one year, the facilities in Serbithang are expected to be ready.

Initially, five acres of land was allotted for the estab­lishment of BIMS and Public Health Laboratory (PHL). However, considering the size of the institute, the Ministry of Health requested for ad­ditional land belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture, ac­cording to the project coordi­nator of BIMS, Jamtsho.

“The agriculture ministry suggested the land near the upcoming IT Park. The land required is 10 acres,” he said.

Apart from the structural development, the preliminary works on curriculum develop­ment, human resources and condition of service of BIMS have also started.

The need for a medical col­lege in the country was felt due to the shortage of health workers aggravated by in­creased expectation, demo­graphic transition, change in morbidity patterns and dou­ble burden of diseases. Amid all this, the present govern­ment has committed to man all the dzongkhag hospitals with a minimum of three doc­tors, including a gynecolo­gist.

Currently, Bhutan relies on medical institutes in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Thailand to train its medi­cal doctors. Each year, ap­proximately 15 to 20 new doctors graduate and return home. “But this figure is not always predictable, and it is inadequate towards achiev­ing self sufficiency in health­care,” said an official from the health ministry.

One of the challenges fac­ing the ministry is hiring pro­fessors. “Hiring qualified pro­fessors in areas like anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology is difficult owing to the lim­ited pool globally,” said the official.

During His Majesty’s state visit to India last year, a mem­orandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between India and Bhutan. BIMS is being established under the purview of the MoU between the two governments with All India Institute of Medical Sci­ences (AIIMS) as the techni­cal partner.

The medical college will be established as an autonomous institute. The Director of JD­WNRH would be the overall in-charge of BIMS and PHL as an interim measure.

He would be supported by the Superintendent of JD­WNRH and the Project Coor­dinator of BIMS. The project implementation unit will have the core functions and responsibilities as stated in the MoU.

The Nu 250 million project is scheduled to be completed next year.

By Kuenzang C Choden

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Posted by Bhutan Observer · Filed Under About Town 

Comments

4 Responses to “Bhutan’s first medical college to come up in Serbithang”

  1. cring on March 9th, 2010 11:21 am

    is nice to here this…yes bhutan needs to be self dependent…..studying medical course out side is too expensive…i feel is better to pour money within our country…rather than spending out….More over is better to bring oppurtunity for scince students to take up medical field…

  2. Pema on March 11th, 2010 10:04 am

    That’s a good initiative! Hopefully the professors will be really good ones so that the doctors will be really of high standards too!

    Also looks like this is to be a big project and hopefully is designed with a local architectural firm and not just given to architects from outsiders as it has been done in the past! It creates local jobs and also always improvement of local firms! With outside architects they jsut take the money and hire people from outside. We have really good architects now and many have studied in some of the best universites of the world.

  3. lekden on March 12th, 2010 12:39 pm

    yah…i am alys behind the decision of govt but cant we look bit far beyond the short term fulfillment of country.
    Bhutan is small country with small population.and there are hundreds of medical students studying abraod presently.what if all this students either govt or pvtly,the market will be filled and by the time when 1st BIMS graduate,they may be able to absorbed in govt hospital and prvt practice are not commercially suitable in bhutanse small population.so,,,what is left there for those stds.they wont be compitent to compete in international market.
    whats is there the profit when you hire all lecturers and professors from abroad?
    it wud be better to send them out than studying in bhutan after all our health sector will be saturated soon.

  4. jimmi on March 12th, 2010 2:50 pm

    one day or another we have to stand on our own feet.yeah its good to start it now.as long as people are into the business the quality of the course will naturally grow either by days or months.need not worry about quality of the products right now but work out the plan.it is every where the venture being started like this only.
    the time has already come and oppertunity too.graps it to taste the taste.
    simply thinking about getting to the sky, one may not get to the sky but seeking, striving and struggling followed by how to reach the sky may one day or another get one to the sky.

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