Police have arrested a Bangladeshi national for allegedly assaulting a patient admitted at the Hulhumale Medical Facility after a video of the accused went viral on social media.
Police said via Twitter that the 31-year-old foreigner was acting as the family-appointed caretaker for the patient.
They also said that Maldives Police Service will take necessary action to ensure protection and all reports of such abuse will be investigated with utmost diligence.
The viral video shows the foreigner striking the patient and making threatening gestures at the patient who appear to cry out after receiving the heavy blow to his face.
Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, whose care the HMF is under, assured in a statement that the abuser was not one of the workers at the HMF but the caretaker appointed by the family of the patient.
The hospital said that even though it was not one of its staff, it cannot allow such abuse to happen at a medical facility under its jurisdiction and would take appropriate action to prevent such events.
The Hulhumale' Medical Facility has come under public scrutiny after many media reports have said that the prime facility for COVID care in the Greater Male' Area is now overrun with patients and that its staff is overwhelmed to the point of being unable to give appropriate care to the patients admitted there.
