Tag: Gan regional hospital

Group murders 31 year-old man on Gan in Laamu Atoll

A group of men have murdered a 31 year-old man on the island of Gan in Laamu Atoll.

The police issued a statement today identifying the victim as Ahmed Nizar of Woodland house on Gan.

Police said the case was reported at 2:22am last night. Police attended the scene and discovered the body, which was at Gan Regional Hospital.

According to police, the doctors pronounced Nizar dead at the time he was brought to the hospital.

Police reported that Nizar was attacked while he was travelling to Gan from Kahdhoo, after receiving some football jerseys from the Kahdhoo Post Office.

The police investigation had revealed that Nizar was attacked with wooden planks and iron bars, police said, stating that they had recovered the murder weapons.

A special team of police have been deployed to Gan to investigate the murder. Police said the victim had no record of criminal activity.

A police spokesperson confirmed that one man had been arrested in connection with the murder.

Gan Island Councilor Abdulla Sulaiman told Minivan News that Nizar was attacked while he was in the company of two of his friends.

“He was with two other friends and as they reached an uninhabited area along Mukuri Magu, five men, three of whom were wearing masks, appeared on the road and attacked him,’’ Abdulla said. “They hit him in the head with an iron bar and he fell to the ground, and then they hit him a second time.”

Sulaiman said one of the five attackers then approached the victim, realised Nizar was not the person they had intended to attack, and said “Hey, I am really sorry bro.”

Sulaiman alleged the attack was related to the theft of a 20 litre bottle of homemade alcohol brewed on the island.

The attack on Nizar is the second murder on Gan this year. On March 14 this year, a 51 year-old man was attacked with an axe while he was sleeping in a house. He died shortly after the attack having suffered serious head injuries.

A source from the island at the time alleged the man was attacked for having an affair with a woman living in the house he was sleeping in.

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President establishes two new ministries in healthcare shake-up

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan has  abolished the Ministry of Health and Family in favour of two new separate ministerial bodies.

The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights have both now been established following the abolition of the previous healthcare body.

Under these two new bodies, Dr Ahmed Jamsheed Mohamed will retain his post as Minister of Health, while Dhiyana Saeed will head the Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights.

Saeed, former SAARC Secretary General and wife of recently-elected Jumhoree Party (JP) MP for Kaashidhoo, Abdulla Jabir, resigned from her SAARC position after criticising former President Mohamed Nasheed for the arrest of Chief Criminal Court judge, Abdulla Mohamed. Saeed was youngest SAARC Secretary General ever appointed and the first female.

Both new ministers conducted their respective oath of office today in-front of Supreme Court Judge Abdulla Areef, according to the President’s Office.

The ministerial changes were made a week after the government announced the abolition of the country’s Health Service Corporations. President Waheed said the service facilities provided by the corporations would be brought under control of the Ministry of Health.

The decision was taken by the cabinet based on the experiences of previous government health policy over the last three years, the government stated. The government claimed that a number of “challenges” needed to be faced in providing healthcare across the country’s atolls.

Just last month, the government announced that 30 state companies providing provincial health and utility services would be abolished to try and streamline various public services.

Seven health corporations charged with overseeing regional medical services were also dissolved in favour of returning their functions to the Ministry of Health and Family.

The now opposition Maldivan Democratic Party (MDP) criticised the decision as reversing the decentralisation policy that had been undertaken in recent years.

“Maldives’ geographical fragmentation means one central board or company will find it impossible to effectively monitor and deliver services in an equitable manner,” former President Nasheed’s former Policy Undersecretary Aminath Shauna told Minivan News at the time.

Regional hospitals

Mohammed Abdul Samad, temporary manager for Gan Regional Hospital in Addu Atoll, told Minivan News Thursday that he personally welcomed the decision to abolish the Health Service Corperations.

Samad claimed that despite the relative success in recent years of Maldives health policy in areas such as cutting infant mortality rates, the quality of health services had been generally declining.

“We are desperately in need for urgent supplies like certain injections. We have so many pending bills and the government has had to arrange money for us,” he said.

Samad, who said he was temporarily overseeing operations at Gan Regional Hospital, added that he therefore welcomed the decision to have the Ministry of Health oversee the former Health Service Corporations’ work.

He also claimed that the government would be better able to provide more technically-experienced health staff rather businessmen to oversee hospital operations.

Samad added that Gan Regional Hospital presently faced significant problems in paying off debts relating to much needed drug supplies.

He claimed that the Health Ministry faced major challenges in relation to hiring trained medical staff at hospitals around the country. Taking the example of Gan Regional Hospital alone, Samad said the site presently had the need to employ additional specialist staff like a second gynaecologist to meet local patient demand, though added that management were unable to find suitable candidates.

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Attackers burn sleeping woman with electric wires

A sleeping woman was badly burned after a group of men broke into her house at night and tied live wires to her feet.

Police said the group entered her house in Laamu atoll on Wednesday night and tied the wires to her toes, then connected it with mains electricity.

Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the 35 year old woman suffered cuts and burns to her legs.

”They used electric wires and live electricity to create the shock,” he said.

Person in-charge of Laamu Gan Regional Hospital, Ali Faisal, said the shock had badly burned the toes on the woman’s left foot. He added that she had now been discharged.

Haveeru reported that the woman was still unable to walk.

Police are investigating the case but no arrests have been made so far.

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