600 medical professionals trained for critical care

Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital has announced that 600 doctors and nurses in the Maldives have been trained for critical care response.

Speaking in a press conference today, IGMH doctor Moosa Hussain said that authorities were aware of three areas to work and focus on to manage COVID-19 when it began to spread in the Maldives.

“We noticed that our human resources for critical care were very low. And that our oxygen supply was also low, as well as some of our critical care equipment such as ventilators were low in number.” Said the doctor.

He said that due to the whole world dealing with the pandemic, such individuals were high in demand and were difficult to be sourced. This meant that the government turned its attention on training doctors and nurses in the Maldives for critical care.

“In this manner, doctors of all categories, whether they are an ophthalmologist or orthopedic doctor, we brought them all in and tried to conduct critical care training for them.” Said Dr. Moosa.

A well-numbered team was assembled for the purpose including medical experts from South Africa, and training was begun in mid-March.

The doctor said, “Under that training program, every doctor was trained on wearing PPEs, intubation, and familiarization with ventilators.” 

A total of 601 doctors and nurses from Male’ and regional hospitals were trained for a period of two days and 11 were trained at IGMH for “Comprehensive Critical Care”.

The seven-day comprehensive critical care saw anesthesiologists and internal specialists from five regional hospitals trained at COVID-19 facilities.

The doctor stated firmly that the trained doctors would be capable of treating given situations in any islands without any hesitation. A webinar was also held to train medical professionals.