It is Saturday in Bhutan and Lotay Tshering has just completed urinary bladder repair surgery on a patient at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital.
However, Tshering is no ordinary doctor. During the week, he also happens to be prime minister in the Himalayan kingdom famous for measuring citizens’ Gross National Happiness.
“For me it’s a de-stresser,” said Tshering, who was elected prime minister of the nation of 750,000 people last year in only its third democratic election since the end of absolute monarchy in 2008.
Photo: AFP
“Some people play golf, some do archery, and I like to operate. I am just spending my weekends here,” the 50-year-old told reporters.
No one at the hospital bats an eyelid as Tshering, wearing a faded lab coat and crocs, walks through the busy corridors. Nurses and hospital attendants continue with their jobs as normal.
The Buddhist kingdom is in many ways a case apart, benchmarking itself on happiness instead of economic growth. One of the pillars of Gross National Happiness is conservation of the environment. Bhutan is carbon negative and its constitution mandates that 60 percent of the country remains forested. It is also big on ecotourism and charges a daily fee of US$250 per visitor in high season.
The capital, Thimphu, has no traffic lights, the sale of tobacco is banned, and television was only allowed in 1999. Archery competitions, with liberal amounts of the local firewater, are a national craze. Phalluses painted on houses to ward off evil are also a common sight.
However, the “Land of the Thunder Dragon” also has its problems, among them corruption, rural poverty, youth unemployment and criminal gangs.
Tshering, who trained in Bangladesh, Japan, Australia and the US, began his political career in 2013, but his party failed to make headway in that year’s election.
After losing, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck commanded him to lead a team of doctors and travel with the monarch’s entourage to far-flung villages to provide free medical treatment.
Now as prime minister, he spends Saturdays treating patients referred to him and Thursday mornings offering medical advice to trainees and doctors. Sunday is family time.
Back in the prime minister’s office, a lab coat hangs on the back of his chair.
This serves as a reminder of his election pledge to focus on healthcare, he said.
Patients do not have to pay directly for healthcare in Bhutan, but Tshering says that much more remains to be done, despite important strides in medical treatment.
While the country has seen major improvements in life expectancy, a reduction in infant mortality and the elimination of many infectious diseases, the number of lifestyle diseases — including alcoholism and diabetes — is on the rise.
“We must now slowly put more focus on secondary and tertiary healthcare,” Tshering said.
At the hospital, Tshering’s patient, a 40-year-old man named Bumthap who underwent a five-hour bladder repair surgery, told reporters that he was pleased with the results.
“Now that I have been operated on by the prime minister, who is considered one of the best doctors in the country, I feel more relieved,” he said.
Politics is a lot like being a doctor, the prime minister said.
“At the hospital I scan and treat patients. In the government, I scan the health of policies and try to make them better,” he said.
“I will continue doing this until I die and I miss not being able to be here every day,” he added.
On the days when he drives his car around Thimphu — instead of using his official chauffeur — an-all-too familiar urge takes hold of him.
“Whenever I drive to work on weekdays, I wish I could turn left toward the hospital,” he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of