A first country-wide review of Diabetes Mellitus care in Bhutan: time to do better.

BACKGROUND: There is an increasing trend of non-communicable diseases in Bhutan including Diabetes Mellitus (DM). To address this problem, a National Diabetes Control Programme was launched in 1996. There is anecdotal evidence that many patients do not visit the DM clinics regularly, but owing to lack of cohort monitoring, the magnitude of such attrition from care is unknown. Knowledge of the extent of this problem will provide a realistic assessment of the situation on the ground and would be helpful to initiate corrective actions. In this first country-wide audit, we thus aimed to determine among type 2 DM patients registered for care the i) pre-treatment attrition ii) one-year programme outcomes including retention in care, died and Lost-to-follow-up (LTFU, defined as not having visited the clinic at least once within a year of registration) iii) factors associated with attrition from care (death + LTFU) and iv) quality of follow-up care, measured by adherence to recommended patient-monitoring protocols including glycaemic control. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study involving a review of records routinely maintained under the National Diabetes Control Programme. All type 2 DM patients registered between 1st January and 31st December 2012 in 18 district hospitals of Bhutan were included. Glycaemic control was defined as glycosylated haemoglobin of <7% or [Fasting Blood Sugar of <130 mg/dl and, Post-prandial Blood Sugar of <180 mg/dl]. RESULTS: Of 350 registered DM patients (52% female, median age 55 years), 63(18%) were LTFU before treatment initiation (pre-treatment attrition). Of the remaining 287 individuals who started treatment, 226(79%) were retained in care while 61(21%) either died or were LTFU. Glycaemic control was achieved in 85(38%) patients retained in care. Between 7 and 98% of monitoring parameters had missing data. CONCLUSION: Nearly one-third of DM patients were LTFU and there were short comings in monitoring. Qualitative research is urgently needed to find out the reasons for high attrition. Given the high political commitment by the Royal Government of Bhutan, the findings provide ample grounds for instituting corrective measures and propelling DM care further. It is time to do better!

Measuring universal health coverage: a three-dimensional composite approach from Bhutan.

BACKGROUND: In the early 1960s, the Kingdom of Bhutan began to develop its modern health-care system and by the 1990s had developed an extensive network of health-care facilities. These developments, in tandem with wider social and economic progress encapsulated in the Gross National Happiness concept, have resulted in major gains in child survival and life expectancy in the past 50 years. In order to sustain these gains, the country has identified a constitutional and health-policy mandate for universal access to health. METHODS: Based on analysis of the literature, and qualitative and quantitative health data, this case study aims to provide an assessment of universal health coverage in Bhutan, and to identify the major challenges to measuring, monitoring and sustaining universal coverage. RESULTS: The study reveals that the wide network of primary and secondary care, reinforced by constitutional and policy mandates, ensures high population coverage, as well as wide availability and accessibility of care, with significant levels of financial protection. This achievement has been attributable to sustained state investment in the sector over past decades. Despite this achievement, recent surveys have demonstrated gaps in utilization of health services and confirmed associations between socioeconomic variables and health access and outcomes, which raise important questions relating to both supply- and demand-side barriers in accessing health care. CONCLUSION: In order to sustain and improve the quality of universal health coverage, improved measurements of service availability at subnational levels and of the determinants of pockets of low service utilization are required. More rigorous monitoring of financial protection is also needed, particularly in relation to rates of public investment and the impact of out-of-pocket costs while accessing care. These approaches should assist improvements in quality and equity in universal health coverage, in the context of ongoing epidemiological, demographic and social transition.