Royal Institute of Health Sciences

About Royal Institute of Health Sciences

According to Wikipedia, The Royal Institute of Health Sciences is one of two main medical education centers in Bhutan, the other being the Institute of Traditional Medicine Services. The RIHS was established in Thimphu in 1974 as a member college of the Royal University of Bhutan, and is associated with the National Referral Hospital. The RIHS offers diploma and certificate programmes for nurses, medical technicians and other primary health care workers. The institute received the World Health Organization's 50th Anniversary Award for Primary Health Care in 1998. Health infrastructure is improving in Bhutan and there is growing number of trained human resources, but the country still had only 2 doctors per 10,000 population in 2005. The RIHS cannot train doctors, so Bhutan must send candidates to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka for their MBBS course.