Health Ministry announced on Friday they will send ambulances to 20 islands within the next couple of days.
The ministry said they have completed the administrative work prior to sending the ambulances bought via STO to the islands. They were now working on transporting the ambulances to the islands and guarantees the islands will have functional ambulances before the week is over.
Numerous islands have raised concern over the issue of having unfunctional ambulances due to lack of maintenance issue. This issue contributed to inability to provide proper healthcare when Maldives was suffering one of its worst wave of Covid cases earlier in April.
Government aims to send ambulances to 60 islands before the year end. Which means over the next two months, 40 additional islands would receive ambulances.
Health Minister Ahmed Naseem has said ambulances are provided by three ways; government budget, aid from the Japanese government, and an additional program. The minister did not give details on the additional program yet.
Japan has provided MVR 46.3 million to Maldives to improve the sea ambulance service in Maldives. This money will be spent on buying sea ambulances and training medical officers to operate these ambulances as well.
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