25 storey tower for cancer hospital, assured what happened to Dharumavantha Hospital would not repeat

A new 25 storey building dedicated to the country's cancer hospital will be developed near Dharumavantha Hospital, said Malé Group of Hospitals, assuring that what happened to Dharumavantha Hospital would not repeat again.

Back during President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Qayyoom's regime, Dharumavantha Hospital was built as a 25 storey tower costing MVR 2.2 billion. However, it was not put to proper use for years, causing public concerns, especially due to the lack of hospital beds, and needing to travel abroad for medical care.

CEO of Malé Group of Hospitals, which also operates Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), Dharumavantha Hospital, Hulhumalé Hospital and Villimalé Hospital, Ibrahim Abdul Razzaq Haleem said in a press conference that although Dharumanvatha Hospital was developed with good intentions, the administration that followed did not have intentions to put it to use.

However, he assured that history would not repeat itself, and explained that there is no reason why the cancer hospital would meet the same fate, especially because the dedicated cancer hospital would also offer other specialist treatments.

Haleem went on to say that there are significant challenges in treating cancer at the time, primarily due to space constraints for PET scans and radiation therapy.

"... Dharumavantha Hospital was also developed with good intentions. But, there was no intention to use - in reality, I don't want to make political statements - but why did the previous administration not use it? Why did [they] leave our facilities to become faulty and damaged? This is a question the public needs to ask," Haleem said in response to a question by local media outlet Mihaaru.

As such, he said that they plan to make the new hospital fully functional within the first year.

Haleem also said that the old IGMH building also needs to be developed, but that they need additional resources to make that happen. Due to this, all 25 floors of the new building would be used from the first day itself, he detailed.

"We want to clear out space in the IGMH land and carry out further development there as well. That's because in this area... even with the new expansion, the bed capacity would not be able to cater to the people living near the area," he addad.

While preliminary plans have been revealed, the detailed planning stage is still ongoing. As such, the total cost of this project is still unknown.