Tree Top Hospital: Maldivian doctors abroad will be incentivized to return

A large number of Maldivians fresh out of school travel abroad for receive higher education in medicine each year, but few of them return.

The lack of opportunity to practice their chosen field on specialization, the lack of resources needed for them to perform work to their satisfaction and the uncertainty over when and if the resources will be available, and the scarcity of tertiary hospitals in Maldives are all factors that are driving away young Maldivian doctors from their own country.

The Tree Top Hospital, an international-standard tertiary hospital with the ambition of becoming a leading hospital in the South East Asian region provides a beacon of hope for the future of Maldivian heath industry.

Being built in Hulhumale’, Tree Top Hospital will be recruiting medical professionals from more than 20 specialized medical fields.

In an exclusive interview with “Sun”, Chief Executive Officer of Tree Top Hospital, Edgar A. Toral Hernandez said that the hospital would be bringing in medical professionals from all over the world; Malaysia, South Asia, North Asia, Europe, and Maldivian medical professionals working abroad.

“There are many Maldivian doctors who are not actually practicing here in the Maldives, but they practice in US, Australia, UK. So we are looking at creating relevant incentives for these doctors to come back home,” said Hernandez.

Assigned as CEO of Tree Top Hospital by the Malaysian healthcare giant, Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care – which is in charge of managing the hospital in Hulhumale’, Hernandez has more than 15 years of experience working in senior posts in the heath sector of multiple North Asian countries.

He said that in order to incentivize Maldivian medical professionals working abroad to return back to the country, the Maldivian heath industry needed first to provide them with the facilities and resources necessary so that the doctors are able to practice and develop their skills up to bar with international medical standards.

“These doctors are accustomed to protocols, medical processes, and have to be able to have instrumentation and technologies to perform any variety of acute procedures. These doctors are willing to come back if we're able to provide them that level of environment,” said Hernandez, regarding Tree Top Hospital’s Plans to provide the Maldivian doctors will enough incentives so that they return back to practice their profession in Maldives.

He pointed out that it didn’t make sense to expect specialized Maldivian doctors working abroad in countries such as the UK to return back to the country and work in Maldives where the main form of healthcare is primary healthcare, when they cannot practice their field of specialty.

He said that Tree Top Hospital therefore needed to ensure that the doctors are motivated and able to perform and advance in their area of specialization.

“So for us it represents an additional cost because we need to ensure the technology, nursing skills, the instrumentation - instrumentation is very expensive- is available for them to practice.

That is one of the key motivation for them,” explained Hernandez. “In addition to that we need to create packages that are attractive for them to come back and work with us. These packages should be on the benchmark of the region."

Tree Top Hospital is expected to open in May, 2017.