The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Will provide Therapeutic diet to patients
Jigme Dorji National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) will soon be providing meals according to patients’ requirements.
Medical Superintendent of JDWNRH, Dr. Gosar Pemba said it will take at least another six months. It is in the pipeline. “When we are able to do that we will stop any food coming from outside. The other requirement is a good hospital canteen that we do not have. We also are planning to have a hospital canteen where attendants can have their food.”
Dr. Gosar said, this is in order to stop food from coming outside. The hospital will need to facilitate people to have an eating place. “And without these if we make rules then it will be difficult for the hospital to come up with such plans,” said Dr Gosar.
He said the reason for the hospital to come up with providing good meals according to a patient’s diet is to keep proper infection control in the hospital because random food should never be allowed.
“When there is lot of food being taken in, there will be issues of pest, flies, and rats. And the drains, toilets and sinks gets blocked. The leftovers are thrown in the sink and drains and sewage gets blocked,” he said.
RCSC has approved only six cooks but with the limited number of untrained cooks, they cannot prepare meals according to the patients’ need. If a patient has hypertension, the patient should have low salt diet. And if a patient has diabetic, then the patient should have diabetic diet.
“That needs to be prepared separately. Currently with 6 cooks who are doing eight-hour shift, it is not possible,” he said.
“However, we are planning to have the normal cook. We can train them but we will need more human resources. So we have put up the requisition to Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) on need of more human resources in order to reach out to every patient,” said Dr. Gosar.
Now the patient’s attendants have to come to the mess to get the food but after we have enough human resources and trolley which would keep food warm, we will provide patient’s meal in the ward, said Dr. Gosar.
JDWNRH provides dhal, rice and curry and it is for every patient irrespective of their illness. He said the government must also increase the food budget. Currently they are getting Nu 60 per patient per day which he said is not enough.
A performance audit report all the way back in 2009-10 found that JDWNRH has prepared a daily issue of diet per patient which is same for all in-patients suffering from different types of diseases.
It says, “However, certain diseases like diabetes and hypertension require a closely monitored diet and with lot of restrictions. Tuberculosis patients need diet rich in nutritional value than a diet that can be given to other patients. Without proper diet for different patients, it may not likely aid treatment of patients suffering from different diseases.”
It says diet plays a critical role in the recovery and control of certain diseases and the well being of a patient depends very much to the kind of diet that is provided to him/her.
“A person would be prescribed with a treatment plan when he is suffering from a medical condition which may include a medication, special diet, an exercise plan and lifestyle changes”, (Dr. Smith, 1999-2008) says the report.
It says according to her, the patients are given the responsibility to manage the diseases and the medication is just a component of the total treatment plan. Therefore, diet forms a very important part of the treatment plan.
