Inauguration of services at Addu Equatorial Hospital postponed

Inauguration of several services at the Addu Equatorial Hospital, scheduled for this Sunday, has been postponed.

While the 100-bed tertiary hospital, Addu Equatorial Hospital is yet to be officially opened, Health Ministry previously announced plans to begin OPD services and several diagnostic services including laboratory, radiology, CT scan, x-ray, mammogram and bone density metric services this Sunday.

Health Ministry’s Executive Communications Director, Hawwa Vajudha Qasim told Sun the hospital had been unable to inaugurate the services as planned to due lack of preparedness.

Vajudha said that the Health Ministry had yet to decide on a date to inaugurate the services, and would announce a new date as soon as it made its decision.

“It was postponed because it isn’t prepared enough to begin the services. A date on which the services will begin is yet to be finalized. It will be announced as soon as it is finalized,” said Vajudha.

 Health Ministry previously stated that while the hospital may yet to be officially opened, it already has 25 specialist doctors, 11, medical officers and 73 nurses on its staff.

The project to convert the Addu Convention Center to a hospital was contracted to Alia Construction in 2016. The contractor completed the project and handed it over to the government in September.

Hithadhoo Regional Hospital is scheduled to continue some of its services including in-patient services, emergency surgeries, and obstetrics services even after the new Addu Equatorial Hospital opens.