JGWNRH, where I am working, is the largest and finest hospital in Bhutan - anyone needing a higher level of care than what can be provided there is referred to India. It is a very large six story building that resembles a monastery on the outside, but inside it is all hospital, with long corridors and lots of signs. Everything is concrete, tile, aluminum, and glass - very functional. The walls are painted white or various pale colors and are in need of a touchup. Electric wires, pipes, and tubes all are on the outside of the walls, as are the various bugs that crawl along disrupting my train of thought.
Light is provided by neon tubes or recessed long life bulbs, but are usually switched off to conserve electricity. The internal medicine ward has six rooms with six beds each. There are no sinks or running water in the patient rooms. Each morning the attending doctor, two interns, myself, and some of the nurses round on all the patients, most of whom have been in the hospital for several days or weeks - the average stay is about two weeks with some patients staying for months.
The patients problems are quite varied and sometimes fascinating. In one bed is a man with tetanus. the next patient is a woman with seizures and cysts in her brain on MRI scan, next is a young woman with kidney failure after a transplant in India. Other patients have heart diseases, strokes, electrolyte disorders, and various infectious diseases. The hospital provides food for the patients, but it is “not good,” so anyone with family in the area has their food brought in.
The hospital has a CT scanner and a MRI scanner, but only basic lab tests. Often the lab report says “no reagent.” But there seems to be an adequate supply of medications and overall the patients improve and go home.
It is a fascinating place to work for a month.
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