Malé, Maldives – Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) has stated that they have observed poor service in the Covid-19 Hulhumale’ Medical Facility (HMF) due to the few number of nurses working at the facility.
Followed by multiple complaints that were spreading in the social media regarding HMF, HRCM informed that a team from their association visited HMF to inspect the place on May 25th 2021.
According to HRCM, during their visit, one of the most frequent issue the HRCM team observed was the poor service that was being provided due to the lack of nurses in the facility. This includes of nurses not being able to properly provide the services a hospitalized Covid-19 patient needs due to the increasing amount of positive patients compared to the few amount of nurses at the facility.
Along with this, HMF stated that while nurses are responsible of hospitalizing and taking care of all the new patients who are transferred to the facility as well, the lack of nurses also comes as a barrier in providing proper information for the families about their sick relative.
The team of HRCM also stated that they noticed that while the family members of the sick send things for the patient hospitalized, those belongings are immediately sent to the patient’s ward, however, from here, it takes time for the stuff to reach the patient as they are taken to the patients bed by a nurse or wardened who are already tasked with multiple works.
Although the HMF is for Covid-19 patients who need extra care, HRCM also noted that due to the lack of nurses and health care workers at the facility, additional people are also allowed to enter the wards and take care of those sick patients who need assistance in doing daily activities. Due to this, HRCM stated that the guidelines of HPA are frequently violated in the Covid-19 facility as there are too many people at the ward at once.
In addition to these, HRCM also stated that during their inspection, they have seen that the workers who are appointed to clean the facility are made to work for 12 hours without a break, and yet, there are issues of these workers not receiving their salaries in HMF.
HRCM had stated that the commission is closely inspecting issues like this and that they will continue to release information related to the citizens to provide everyone what they are rightfully entitled to.
