Can’t improve IGMH service without expansion, chief says

The quality of services provided by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) cannot be improved unless the hospital is expanded and space is increased.

Male City Group of Hospitals CEO Ibrahim Abdul Razzaq told the Parliament's Committee on Social Affairs on Wednesday that one of the biggest problems facing the hospital is the lack of bed capacity.

He said there are many challenges to improve and accelerate the quality of services provided by the hospital. He said the biggest challenge is that the hospital has not been able to add enough beds while 32 specialties are being provided.

"When IGMH opened [1995], the hospital had 186 beds. This number of beds highlights inpatient, admitted beds, not counting emergency room and ICU beds. By 2024, we were able to make 316 beds in all these hospitals," he said.

“The fact of the matter is that as the hospital develops and the doctors of the hospital develop and introduce specialised services that require more staff, with each of these services, we are not able to add enough beds when patients are admitted.”

He said the hospital is also trying to solve one of the most common complaints of the public, the lack of availability of appointments. A pilot project has been launched and appointments can be made in advance now, he said.

“The faster we accelerate this, the more we will face challenges because there are not enough beds,” he said.

He said patients are still being treated in the emergency room. However, it is not an admitted treatment facility and patients only have to be kept there due to lack of beds, he said.

Ibrahim Abdul Razzaq said the IGMH building is now very dilapidated and some of the wards of the hospital are not suitable to keep patients even.

"The IGMH is very old, very old and needs to be upgraded. The IGMH can be upgraded by another facility, which means another facility that can increase the number of beds," he said.

Therefore, he said the cancer hospital being built on the vacant land at Dharumavantha Hospital grounds should include facilities for women and children.

The CEO of IGMH said the number of beds will increase to 650 when the hospital is completed. Once completed, he said he was planning to construct another building in the area where the IGMH wards are now located and connect it with Dharumavantha.

"In recent years, hospital maintenance and repair works have not been done well and condensation problems, water leakage and fungus problems have been severe all over the place. As a result, some rooms are not being used and we are facing a lot of problems in getting rooms because the conditions in the rooms are not up to a hospital’s mark. For us, keeping children and patients there means more difficulties," he said.

Before that, about 70 more beds are being brought to the IGMH this year. He said:

A project to increase the bed capacity of the Hulhumale Hospital will be launched early next year. A 15-storey extension building with 250 beds will be constructed on the land of the Hulhumale Hospital, he said.