Gov’t mind games leave Maldives guessing on mental health hospital
President Muizzu is facing criticism for conflicting plans regarding a national mental health hospital originally promised for L. Gan. While the president previously cited the island's natural environment as ideal for recovery, the administration has shifted focus to a smaller facility in the Greater Male Region due to financial and logistical concerns. Recent statements from the Health Ministry confirm that no feasibility studies were conducted for the L. Gan site, leaving the project in limbo.
The Member of Parliament for the North Galolhu constituency, Mohamed Ibrahim, poses a question to the Minister of Health, Family, and Welfare, Geela Ali, during a parliamentary sitting. | People's Majlis
The current administration seems to have forgotten how to keep its stories straight. President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu started off strong with a grand campaign pledge to build an international mental hospital in L. Gan. Then, in classic political fashion, he muddied the waters by declaring that a similar facility would pop up right in the congested Malé City region instead.
During an April 27th press briefing at the President's Office this year, the president talked up an open-space concept planned for L. Gan, while simultaneously dropping the news that land had suddenly been locked down for a mental hospital in the Greater Malé Region (GMR).
Naturally, the public is left completely in the dark, wondering whether the government is actually building two specialized facilities or just stringing everyone along.
A money maze and shifting capitals
The financial excuses are just as tangled as the logistics. The president told journalists that an USD 18 million loan request had been tossed out to foreign donors to finance the L. Gan project.
However, he immediately countered that by saying if the state budget had to pick up the tab, it would actually be cheaper, but any facility built with state money would strictly be built in the GMR.
A minister out of the loop
Enter the administration's third Health Minister, Geela Ali. On Tuesday, he stood before the People’s Majlis and casually admitted that no specific study had ever been done on putting a mental health hospital outside the GMR.
This admission completely undermines the president’s public promises. Just last year on April 12, President Muizzu stood on the ground in L. Gan and looked residents in the eye, re-upping his vow to bring an international mental hospital to their island.
The blueprint that vaporized
The current narrative is a total u-turn from what the administration’s very first Health Minister, Dr. Abdulla Khaleel, was selling. Back on 22 December 2023, Dr. Khaleel gave an interview to the Mihaaru newspaper confirming the government's official choice to place the mental hospital in L. Gan.
He explained that the prior administration’s idea for a cancer hospital in Gan was being moved to the capital area so that President Muizzu’s specific promise for a mental health oasis in Gan could take its place.
Back then, the first Health Minister argued heavily that building outside the capital was a stroke of genius. He insisted that a specialized facility on that particular island was vital because patients would recover far better in the atolls than in the GMR.
He preached that natural backdrops, unpolluted air, and lush greenery are fundamental parts of psychiatric treatment. In his view, a wide-open, hopeful environment like Gan was miles ahead of a cramped, chaotic construction site like Malé City.
Counting heads and chopping square footage
Fast forward to the present, and the current minister is singing a completely different tune, claiming that building such a facility requires looking at where the actual crowd of patients and resources are located.
The government is now hiding behind numbers, pointing out that out of 70,000 mental health consultations over the last three years, 45,000 took place in the GMR.
Because the staff and the sick are allegedly packed into the capital, the state has pivoted to building the hospital in Malé, carving out a 10,000-square-foot slice of land in Hulhumalé for it.
Even the measurements don't match up. During that same April press conference, President Muizzu himself claimed the Malé area mental hospital would sit on roughly 14,000 square feet of land, a noticeable inflation from the current minister's numbers.
All of this serves as a harsh reality check from the days when Dr. Muizzu originally promised the National Mental Hospital during his presidential campaign tour of the island as the PNC candidate.
Back then, he left no room for doubt, declaring outright that the landmark National Mental Hospital he envisioned for the nation would call L. Gan its home.
Now, the public is left to figure out which promise has already expired.
