Maternal mortality is 255/100,000 live births and under-five mortality, 61.6/100. “These figures are still high and losing mothers to childbirth is preventable,” states the AHB. The biggest challenges in preventing maternal and child mortality are the formidable terrain, lack of knowledge, resource to access care and delay in care delivery.

“Even with high focus on institutional delivery, deliveries by trained personnel are only about 66 percent,” the AHB reports.

The national nutrition and infant and young child feeding survey-2008 revealed very high stunting across all regions. The western region had more acute malnutrition, while the east had more chronic malnutrition.

The survey recommends a review of existing nutrition strategies and the development of a national nutritional policy. “The food and nutrition status requires more attention of the health ministry and the government,” recommended the survey.

A total of 15, 631 surgeries in various fields were conducted in 2008 across the country. The health ministry today has 3,414 staff, but a shortage of health workers still plagues the country. As a result of shift in disease trends, the health care cost has increased, especially with the advent of non-communicable diseases (NCD) like cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in the country. Bhutan spent Nu 89.125 million for patient referrals last year.

“NCDs have even reared in rural dwellings where soft drinks are replacing milk and junk food, balanced meals. Absence of female staff in BHUs has also hindered the delivery of quality services,” pointed out the basic health worker of Sangdhyen BHU, Dorokha, Samtse, Ugyen Thinlay, in his contribution to the bulletin.

Health facilities around the country saw 947 deaths, of which 123 were babies and 98 from alcohol liver disease.