Spokesperson: Stock shortage could halt healthcare services

The spokesperson for the president-elect’s office says that health officials haven’t been placing new orders for equipment and pharmaceuticals needed by hospitals, warning that a shortage of stock could result in a halt to hospital services until the end of November.

In his daily press briefing on Monday, Mohamed Firuzul Abdulla Khaleel said that hospitals always pre-order the stock they need.

He said that hospitals haven’t made new orders in recent days, and are currently using emergency stock.

“Single-use items – these are items that are ordered, and which’s stocks are maintained and used in accordance with certain regulations,” he said.

Firuzul said that the standard practice was to place such orders on a bi-annual basis.

He said that health officials haven’t placed the order for the last six months of the year, which is disrupting services at hospitals and health centers.

“If this situation prevails, by November or by mid-November, it is possible for a complete halt to many of the services provided from hospitals and health centers. This is of deep concern to us,” he said.

Firuzul said that transitional committees found the cause to be the lack of funds allocated for it from the budget.

 USD 5.3M DEBT ON IGMH

Firuzul said that the office also found that the main government hospital, IGMH, has outstanding payments to foreign companies they have outsourced some of its services to.

He said that the IGMH has USD 5.3 million in outstanding bills to foreign companies or hospitals it has outsourced services at its cardiac and neuro centers to.

“Most of the bills involve the provision of consumables,” he said.

“We are deeply concerned that these outstanding bills could disrupt services from these centers.”

Firuzul said that according to the hospital, the annual budget allocated for the IGMH has only enough to cover the salary of employees.

He said that according to IGMH, this has halted procurement of machinery and maintenance work.