Speaker and former President, Mohamed Nasheed has stated that the parliament will investigate the deaths of three newborns at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) that took place last month.
During the "Ask Speaker" event held on Saturday night, which opened opportunities for the public to ask the Speaker of Parliament questions, a citizen named Mohamed Shamee, who identified himself as the father of one of the newborns who died, asked Nasheed for clarification on why no investigation has taken place on the deaths of the three newborns.
Shamee highlighted that only IGMH had issued a statement regarding this incident and asserted that there is evidence of neglect on the hospital's part. He went on to request information regarding where to present the evidence so as to hold the guilty parties accountable.
In response, the speaker stated that the evidence should be submitted to the people's parliament.
They should be submitted to the parliament. We will investigate until an answer is found and a parliament's committee will hopefully oversee the matterSpeaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed
As such, the 19th Parliament Committee on Human Rights and Gender have been probing into similar matters by summoning and questioning relevant authorities.
Likewise, authorities were summoned for questioning regarding the issue of the pregnant 13-year-old girl which recently surfaced where authorities failed to take swift action.
The committee also summoned the Minister of Gender, Shidhatha Shareef, regarding the 14-year-old boy who ran away from the children's shelter at Vilimale' and went missing.
The public took to social media to express outrage after three newborns died at IGMH within 24 hours of each other in early November.
IGMH released a press statement after media reports were published on the matter.
According to IGMH's statement, there were only two deaths and both children were discovered to be still-borns at the time of birth.
They further asserted that the hospital always conducts investigations for all perinatal and postnatal deaths. Moreover, they claim that the issue is being probed as per the guidelines dictated by the committee from the Ministry of Health.
Nevertheless, no additional information was provided regarding the matter.
