Ministry of Health, Royal Government of Bhutan Thimphu: Annual Health Bulletin 2015

Bhutanese health system has undergone a significant change during the last few decades. The change has been accompanied by improvement in the delivery of health care services to the people resulting in improved health outcomes of Bhutanese population. There has been increasing life expectancy, decreasing prevalence of communicable diseases, among others. Further, most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) has been realized, while some of them remain on track to be fulfilled by 2015. In addition, feedbacks from the populations also indicate lower report of sicknesses and increased satisfaction rate with health care services.

On the contrary, Bhutanese health system is grappling with a plethora of challenges. The double burden of diseases – emerging and re-emerging communicable diseases and increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases – poses threats to the health of Bhutanese population. Health system also continues to face problems such as the shortage of health workforce and escalation of health expenditures, among others.

Therefore, the Status of Bhutan’s Health 2015 features the health status of Bhutanese population as of 2014. It is described under the following headings; 1) progress in health; 2) modifiable gaps in health; and 3) health system and its challenges.