Tag: treatment

Facebook donations help 9 month-old baby get lifesaving surgery

A nine-month-old baby boy was able to have a life saving heart surgery after his family created a Facebook appeal for donations to fly him to India for treatment.

Akiyal’s father Farhan, an engineer from the Maldives, decided to make a Facebook page after the family was unable to able to get any funding in Maldives for the operation, reported the Deccan Chronicle.

After launching the Facebook campaign back in July 2013, and undergoing three open heart operations, Farhan has announced that Akiyal has now recovered and they will be returning to the Maldives in a few days.

Akiyal was born with a rare heart condition known as double outlet right ventricle (DORV), a condition in which the blood vessel that carries oxygen-rich blood from the heart, is located in the wrong place.

“It was a complex surgery in the sense that the child was born with one side of the heart not developed, undeveloped left pumping chamber and a large hole in the heart along with a blockage of the artery going to the lung. He required a complex repair job, which wasn’t being done in the Maldives,” says the child’s doctor, Adil Sadiq, Head Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Sakra World Hospital in Karnataka.

Farhan told the Deccan Chronicle, “It was not possible to get funds in the Maldives, so my family and I decided to go online and ask for help from the social media. We went ahead with creating a Facebook page for our son.”

“We promoted the page by paying five dollars, which implied that 20,000 Facebook users would see the page,” says Farhan.

“The money that we used to promote the page time and again was less than 100 dollars, but we were able to raise Rs 8 lakh over the course of the year,” adds Farhan.

According to the article, the Facebook page received donations from anonymous altruists in Sri Lanka, Belgium, Maldives and Bangalore.

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Ten former addicts released after completing drug rehabilitation program

Eight people were awarded certificates by the Drug Court this week upon completion of a drug rehabilitation programme and released with suspended sentences.

According to Sun Online, of the 10 who completed the program and were released, certificates were awarded to Hassan Daood of Boakulhandhurumaage, Lhaviyani Hinnavaru; Hassan Rasheed of G. Life; Mohamed Faseeh of Faseemaage, Raa Hinguraidhoo; Ibrahim Shafeeu of H. Lobby; Muslim Shakir of Janavareege, Gaafu Dhaalu Vaadhoo; Muhiyyuddheen Abdul Gafoor of Gulaabeege, Baa Kendhoo; Ali Rasheed of Ranvilaage in Haa Dhaalu Hanimaadhoo; and Abdullah Zareer of Ma. Kandooge.

The other two could not participate in the ceremony as they were out of Male’ at the time. The certificates were presented by Judge Mahaz Ali Zahir, Judge Abdul Sattar Abdul Hameed and Judge Husain Shahamath Mahir.

Speaking at the ceremony, Judge Mahaz revealed that the court had sentenced 275 people to rehabilitation, out of which 19 people had been arrested and sent back to jail.

The Drug Court was established in 2012 by the new Drug Act passed by parliament in December 2011, emphasising treatment and rehabilitation while moving away from taking a punitive approach against “small-scale” drug offences.

The court commenced its first trial in August 2012. In May this year, the court was temporarily forced to send addicts back to jail with government detox centers at full capacity.

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Drug Court sending addicts to jail after detox centres reach capacity

With government detox facilities at capacity the Drug Court is sending addicts to jail in the interim, prompting the Maldives’ National Drug Agency to call on private businesses and NGOs to fill the gap.

Twenty-four men have been sent to prison for 90 days, or until space becomes available for treatment, in accordance with the Drug Act which states the court has the authority to do so if “rehabilitation centers are unable to facilitate treatment”, according to local media.

All emergency medical detox centers are full nationwide – the Himmafushi Island, Villingili Island, Fuvamulah and Addu, National Drug Agency (NDA) Chairperson and State Health Minister Lubna Mohamed Zahir Hussain confirmed to Minivan News today (May 1).

“Rehab is not full, however detox is full for the next 14 days. Demand is so high that clients are waiting in prison,” said Zahir.

“The Drug Court is sentencing too many people every day. There are so many – too many – cases. The court doesn’t want to delay sentencing, so people eligible for rehab must wait in prison – for a maximum of three months,” she added.

Zahir stated that 24 men currently in jail – awaiting the first phase of rehab, which is detoxification – will be moved to the drug rehabilitation center on Himmafushi island within two weeks. No women are awaiting detox, claimed Zahir.

“We are calling for help”

Zahir emphasised that current government regulations allow for the privatisation of rehabilitation centers and the NDA has requested bids for private companies in the government gazette, however no applications have been submitted thus far.

“We are looking forward to receiving applications. It’s time the government opened international bidding to do so,” declared Zahir.

“[The NDA] is open for discussions about opening a rehabilitation resort. A similar program to cabins in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is a really good program.

“For example, foreigners can come to the island destination [for drug rehabilitation], the profits of which could be used to subsidise treatment for Maldivians,” Zahir explained.

The private rehabilitation centers would be supplementary to the national treatment center for men and women, which is required by law, according to Zahir.

She also highlighted the need to strengthen aftercare programs in partnership with local communities. This is a particular challenge for NGOs who are working with drug addicts.

“Communities fail to understand the work NGOs are doing with drop-in clients. Awareness and education are needed, because NGOs are running into lots of problems with communities,” said Zahir.

Political polarisation and the focus on the upcoming presidential elections seems to be preventing this work from occurring, claims Zahir.

“It is easy [for NGOs] to apply for and get community [drug] rehab licences to conduct relapse prevention. And we are really calling for help,” she implored.

NDA has also issued requests for qualified people to apply for councillor positions with NDA to support their outpatient community rehabilitation programs.

There are between 200 and 400 clients, but very few councilors, Zahir explained.

Facilities lacking

The limited space within the Himmafushi rehabilitation center becomes available on a revolving basis – as clients complete their treatment – however capacity to conduct the three day emergency medical detoxification is extremely restricted.

The Himmafushi center has space to detox about 20 people at any given time, however it only has the capacity to manage about 10 individuals. The center is able to conduct drug rehabilitation for 150 men and 12 women maximum. Additionally, 12 detox spaces are available on each of the islands of Villingili, Fuvamulah and Addu.

“Two years ago we used a detox dorm for women on Himmafushi, however they were shifted to the female specific unit established on Villingili June 26, 2011,” explained Zahir.

“The NDA and Gender Department – under the Health Ministry – ran the rehabilitation center for women on Villingili. But it was closed in 2012 when the Gender Department became the Gender Ministry and took over the building.

“We requested from [former Gender, Family and Human Rights Minister] Diyana Saeed to keep center. Demand is high, we need a unit always,” she added.

Subsequently, women in need of drug treatment did not have a center for seven months until the original female dorm located on Himmafushi was reopened.

The NDA is planning to add three additional units to the Himmafushi drug treatment center and had requested government funds for the project, according to Zahir.

“NDA lacks implementation capacity”

“Drug abuse is too much money for the government to bear, because the problem is so wide-spread and the cost is so high,” an expert in holistic drug prevention, treatment, and aftercare told Minivan News today.

“The government is doing almost nothing for drug prevention, which then puts a huge burden on the government, including the public health sector. There is also a dire need for early intervention,” claims the source.

“NDA lacks the capacity and staff to do everything. They are not able to handle prevention, inpatient or outpatient treatment. Currently, they do not even have a CEO and are operating outside of the law,” the source continued.

“NDA should act as a governing body and watchdog only. Otherwise they cannot handle the demand,” added the source. “There is only one rehabilitation centre and it’s always full because there are so many people in need.”

The source suggested that the state-run detox and treatment centers should be outsourced to private or civil society institutions, leaving room for the NDA to oversee and regulate. Additionally, building NGO capacity to address drug abuse would “benefit the entire nation”.

“There is no one to monitor and make them responsible if NDA is the implementing body,” said the source.

A “clear cut” country strategy – similar to the recently released 2013-2020 European Union drug strategy – needs to be developed in the Maldives, the source believes. The entire sector in Maldives works at cross-purposes and is not aiming for one particular prevention, treatment, or aftercare goal.

“Addiction is a lifelong chronic, relapsing brain disease. A person will relapse six to eight times or more before they completely stop using and live a sober life,” explained the source.

“Relapse is not failure, rather it’s due to the treatment program or person lacking some kind of support. Addiction is a very complex disease and affects each person differently.

“Often addiction is accompanied by another disease, such as depression or other mental health issue, but treatment in the Maldives does not address this. Thus, people relapse easily, which adds to the stigma surrounding drug users.

“This concept needs to be internalized in the Maldives and a continuum of care must be provided. This includes environment based intervention, evidence based and client focused treatments, as well as continuing guidance, education and support programs,” said the source.

The source further recommended referring to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse to structure these programs.

“The government spends so much money and this is such a small place, they should be able to do something,” concluded the source.

Nationwide drug abuse controversy

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and NDA published a survey in February, claiming there are 7496 drug users in the Maldives.

Informed sources who participated in the survey process previously expressed serious concerns about the “flawed methodology” of the data collection process, which they claimed had produced a final report that inaccurately and grossly underestimates drug use in the Maldives. Key populations such as those in jail, women, and users of ‘party drugs’ were left out of the survey.

The NDA subsequently refuted criticisms over the drug report’s methodology in a letter sent to Minivan News.

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Aasandha director claims service not suspended in India’s Amrita hospital

The Amrita Institute of Technology Hospital in Kochi, India has not suspended Aasandha health care services despite reports in local media to the contrary, the scheme’s managing director has stated.

Local media reported yesterday (January 28) that services offered under the universal health care scheme Aasandha had been suspended due to unpaid bills for treatment provided to Maldivians by Amrita hospital.

However, Aasandha Managing Director Mohamed Niyaz told Minivan News today that services had not been suspended.  Niyaz said that Aasandha was instead having to control patient admittance to keep in line with the credit limit recently imposed by the hospital.

“Because of the large number of patients who went to receive treatment at the hospital in December last year and delays in paying those bills, Amrita hospital put a credit limit on the treatment they can offer that is paid for by Aasandha,” he explained.

“We are now controlling the number of patients we are admitting to the hospital in order for Aasandha to not go over the imposed credit limit,” Niyaz said.

An official from Amrita hospital told Minivan News that while it is still treating patients who are covered by Aasandha, there had been a period of four days earlier this month where it stopped admitting patients due to unpaid bills.

“There is a total of 7 million rupees (US$ 130,536) outstanding in payment to be made by Aasandha through Hospital Professional Liability (HPL) insurance, who we deal with.

“We ceased treating outpatients covered by Aasandha for four days, but HPL then paid part of the bill and so we resumed our services,” the hospital official told Minivan News.

The credit cap imposed on Aasandha by Amrita hospital was introduced to match a similar credit cap applied to all other health insurance companies who work with the hospital, the hospital official said.

“Originally we had a special agreement with Aasandha whereby they had no credit cap on the treatment we could provide. However our Financial Controller has now introduced it because it is the same as other insurance companies we deal with,” the hospital official added.

“Even now Aasandha’s credit cap is a lot higher than the other insurance companies. We have a great relationship with the Maldives and we treat our Maldivian patients as our own.”

According to Niyaz, patient treatment is currently being prioritised on a case-by-case basis in order for the service they are receiving to not be “compromised”.

In regard to bill payment, Niyaz claimed there had been a number of factors as to why the money had not been paid to Amrita hospital.

“It takes two to four weeks for the treatment bills to come through after a patient has been discharged from the hospital and then we have to pay for the treatment in US dollars,” he said.

“It takes a further two weeks for us to secure the dollars as we have to buy at a bank rate. We are trying to find ways to work around this problem at the moment.”

During December – a “peak” period for Maldivians wishing to seek medical treatment -Niyaz said there had been some issues receiving money from the Finance Ministry in order to pay the bills.

Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad was not responding to calls from Minivan News at time of press.

Niyaz revealed that Aasandha had experienced similar issues at a hospital in Colombo and three other hospitals in India, but that these have all been resolved.

Free health care of up to MVR 100,000 (US$ 6,476) was initially available to citizens under Aasandha. Changes to the system were made by the government in August last year, after concerns the scheme would run out of money.

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President commits to extending national dialysis services by end of year

President Doctor Mohamed Waheed Hassan has committed to provide dialysis services to two further regions of the Maldives this year after unveiling a new treatment unit at Hulhumale’ Hospital on Thursday (July 12).

Speaking during the unveiling of the Hulhumale’ Dialysis Unit, which forms part of a focus to expand the availability of healthcare services beyond the capital, the president said plans were in place for providing similar services to two unspecified areas of the country with higher populations, according to the President’s Office website.

The new unit to Hulhumale’ hospital was said to have been provided by “private individuals”, underlining what the President’s Office called a “priority given by the government to provide such services without entirely being dependent on the government budget.”

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