MVR50 million investment for Kulhudhuffushi hospital

The government has pledged to invest MVR50 million (US$3.19 million) in the development of Kulhudhuffushi Regional Hospital development, local media reported.

The health ministry took over the hospital’s administrative facilities following a row between local and international partners who had been handed KRH to develop it into a multi-specialty facility.

State funds will now be used to develop the hospital during a three-month period.

A CT scan machine, MRI machine, and specialty doctors will be funded with the money.

Health Minister Abdulla Nazim told Mihaaru that President Abdulla Yameen wanted to bring the hospital up to tertiary standards.

“[We] started to develop the hospital with NIMS (Noorul Islam Educational Trust). The government decided to develop it when the situation at the  hospital got out of hand. We’re working to bring about changes in the next three months,” he said.

KRH appeared to be unaware about the plans.

“It is all under the [health] minister’s direct supervision. We don’t know anything,” a senior hospital official told the Maldives Independent.

They had not been informed if the 50-year agreement with NIMS, the joint venture firm at the centre of the row, had been terminated.