An emergency motion submitted on Wednesday by the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Pary (MDP) over disruption of services at the Hulhumale’ Hospital has been rejected by the Parliament, in which the main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) holds a supermajority.
With his motion, MDP lawmaker Dr. Ahmed Shamheed, the representative for South Hulhumale’ constituency, expressed concern that the constant interruption of services at the government hospital was disrupting its operations, which serves thousands of people in Hulhumale’.
However, the motion was rejected with a vote of 37-10.
The motion came a day after technical issues disrupted some of the services at the Hulhumale’ Hospital for around one hour. Electricity issues had also disrupted services on June 27, forcing the hospital to relocate its OPD services to the Hulhumale’ Hospital General Practice Clinic located at H16 in Hulhumale’ Phase II.
Normal services did not resume until six hours later.
In his motion, Shamheed said that the state has a duty to provide public healthcare services to the best of its ability. He said that given that Hulhumale’ hosts the largest residential population outside of Male’ City, it is imperative that the state provides uninterrupted and quality healthcare services to cater to the population.
South Hulhumale' MP Dr. Ahmed Shamheed. (Photo/People's Majlis)
He said that the Hulhumale’ Hospital sees an average of over 15,000 patients each month, including an average of over 330 patients who require hospitalization.
Shamheed said that there is high public concern over the failure of the hospital to cater to the high volume of patients.
He accused the government of failure to establish enough resources and facilities at the hospital, failure to allocate an adequate budget, and challenges in hiring enough doctors, specialists and other technical staff.
Key issues highlighted by Shamheed include:
Shortage of staff to provide 24/7 healthcare services
Shortage of medical officers, resulting in them being overworked and unable to properly focus on patients
Suspension of overtime pay, resulting in doctors being unwilling to work overtime
Staff being forced to work double jobs to pay off student loans and cover living costs due to suspension of overtime pay
Lack of an interventional cardiologist, forcing the hospital to transfer patients suffering from heart attacks to the Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) in Male’ City
Lack of an inhouse neurologist
With his emergency motion, Shamheed sought to bring the issues to the attention of the government and press for solutions.