President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has stressed the importance of educating locals in the health sector to improve the services given in the Maldives.
He made the remarks during a ceremony held at the National Art Gallery to inaugurate the 'Nursing Now' campaign.
Speaking at the function, the President stressed that importance must be given to educating locals in the field if the country's health sector were to be improved. The president noted that a greater number of nurses will be needed in the near future according to the administration's plan to develop the sector.
The Administration plans to develop five tertiary hospitals in five regions, while simultaneously establishing quality health care facilities across the country. He said it would reorganise health care provision by enhancing the role of dedicated community health workers who would conduct regular home visits and carry out health check-ups and awareness programmes.
Nurses are the largest group of healthcare professionals worldwide, accounting for 56 per cent of healthcare professionals in the Maldives. Despite the services of 3300 registered nurses across the country, the President stressed that this number is quite less compared to the urgency for their services. He further emphasised the need to train more nurses, especially with the development of new hospitals across the country.
"Based on the Administration's plans for the health sector, we will need a greater number of nurses within the next 2-3 years," said the president.
President Solih highlighted that centralisation had been the primary challenge in providing universal healthcare in the Maldives despite significant improvements in health standards over the past few decades. He stated that the Administration’s answer is the development of the healthcare sector through its decentralisation policy, as outlined in its Strategic Action Plan (SAP).
