How are the healthcare services at your resort?
Though all resort clinics are adequately prepared to meet guest needs, not all are created equal.
Unsplash | Yoann Boyer
The response to the question is met with the realisation that it is not a question most people have much considered. However, it is of great importance to the tourists who visit our resorts in the Maldives.
With tourism accounting for one third of total government revenue, the recent COVID-19 pandemic and resultant border closures made a massive dent on the economy. In the aftermath, health authorities scrambled to ensure the immediate revision and reinforcements of health regulations.
Since the pandemic, it is mandatory that all resorts have a medical clinic, which has its own set of requirements, to be registered under the Ministry of Health.
With at least one medical officer and a nurse/primary healthcare worker, the clinic must consist of the minimal facilities for any health institute where the doctor can prepare, consult, observe and conduct necessary emergency procedures.
Post pandemic, there have been numerous openings for clinical professionals in resorts, who must all be registered practitioners with up to date licenses. All expatriate clinicians, must have received proper orientation from the Ministry of Health itself.
All resorts now have one medical clinic, which works the same way as all private clinics do. Visiting guests may book appointments or walk-in to get a consultation with the medical officer. The services provided are noted to be adequate for the kinds of patients the doctors are expected to consult, which in general consist of flus and fevers.
Most resorts generally have a permanent team of two for clinical practice, whereas some resorts have contracts with hospitals such as Treetop Hospital where their medical officers travel to the resorts on a three month rotating duty.
Emergency situations are handled as they come, giving immediate first response to stabilise the patient. In more immediate or challenging instances, which are rare, transportation is always ready to shift the stabilised patient to the respective regional hospital.
It is perhaps due to the ease in transporting the patient that not much has been needed to further develop the clinic itself. There has not been much change over the past six years in the working experience, but small improvements in terms of resources can be noted, such as obtaining oxygen tanks and defibrillators.
The clinics themself have to be registered, however, and it is the registration level that decides which services they can provide. With four levels assigned for health centres, resort clinics are registered at the lowest level. This allows them to conduct the very basic and immediate, but necessary, procedures to ensure stability of the patient.
However, this does not provide facilities such as ECGs for further testing, which are available in resorts registered at a higher level. It can prove useful to have access to these facilities so as to complete any necessary tests without the need to travel, but the access to regional hospitals overshadows this aspect for progress.
Another much needed development is in the structure of the clinic itself. The Health Services Act 27/2075 provides a guideline for the clinic area, which is to compromise of a separate room for donning and doffing, consultations, observations, procedures, and waiting. Some clinics may not have individual rooms as such, where consultations and observations undergo in the same room.
With prevalence of medical incidents taken in to consideration, the recent healthcare delivery plans include establishing a demand-based specialised center for atolls and resorts ensuring an appropriate, and adequate, response is always at hand.
