The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The three rooms at the mother’s room in JDWNRH for the patients’ attendants were crowded and dirty with mothers forced to sleep on the floors. The rooms are used by the mothers of babies or children in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), Phototherapy and also attendants of Adult Intensive Care Unit (AICU).
Therefore, the Quality Assurance Division (QAD) team has shifted mother’s room to the old Oncology Unit in the same building in Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH).
An official from the QAD of JDWNRH said the team had proposed to shift the mother’s room a long time ago, and during the lockdown, there were many issues regarding the mother’s room. The hospital management could not do anything since they were all engaged in the COVID-19 management.
She said the patient’s relatives or attendants are supposed to sleep in the room designated for them, but it has become overcrowded and also unhygienic. She said mothers were seen sleeping on the floors.
The QAD team prioritized providing a room for mothers of patients in NICU. All the attendants of NICU have been shifted to a new room since attendants are mostly mothers. As per the expert, attendants are 30 times more stressed than the patients admitted in the ICU, AICU or NICU. Another reason is they are more prone to infections.
The mothers of babies who are admitted to NICU or Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) stay in the mother’s room, as they cannot keep mothers along with the babies in NICU.
There are 14 beds in NICU, and so 14 beds for mothers or attendants are put in the new room at the old Oncology Unit. There are also two toilets and a separate two shower rooms for the attendants, and room heaters are to be installed as well.
Apart from shifting mother’s room, the QAD team has also proposed to have a Diabetic Clinic from Monday till Friday starting at 9 am till 3 pm.
The official said with the increasing number of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the country, two days in a week to see NCD patients are not enough. In a month, 560 NCD patients are seen, but an estimated 1,000 NDC patients come to the hospital for checkup. That is because every patient wants to visit JDWNRH.
The QAD team checked on the working modality and learnt that NCD patients were attended on Tuesday and Thursday, and this has been going on for a long time. It is impossible to control the crowd, and most of the time patients have to return without the service.
Meanwhile, a spacious mother’s room complete with a mother’s mess and other facilities is under construction in the new hospital coming up.
