Plans to develop residential homes for the elderly stalled

The planned development of private residential homes for the elderly has been temporarily stalled, the Ministry of Health and Family said today.

Director of the Department of Gender and Family Hafeesa Ali confirmed that work on establishing private care homes for the elderly had currently been halted with the change of the government in February.

“There were plans last year to develop residential care homes due to the increasing number of requests to transfer old people to Guraidhoo center. But as you know, several projects from last year have come to a halt now [after the change of government on February 7]. The discussions are ongoing, but I can say it is not progressing as fast as we had hoped,” Ali told Minivan News.

The cabinet of former President Mohamed Nasheed decided in July 2011 to establish private residential homes under its Public Private Partnerships (PPP) scheme.  The pledge for residential homes was made owing to concerns over the increasing number of elderly people being transferred to the state-run Guraidhoo Special Care Centre, which was found by the government to have insufficient space and facilities to accept new charges.