Maldives sets binding standards for national public health programmes

The Ministry of Health, Family and Welfare and the Health Protection Agency have issued Regulation 2026/G-27, a binding set of technical standards and rules governing every service delivered under the Maldives’ national public health programmes. The regulation was published in the Government Gazette of the Maldives, No. 159, Volume 55, dated 14 October 2026, and applies from the date of publication.

The instrument is made under Article 10-2 of Law No. 29/2015 (Health Services Act) and runs to 69 articles across eight parts and 58 gazette pages. It binds government hospitals, health centres and primary health care centres, as well as private hospitals and clinics that deliver services under the national programmes. Its stated purpose is to fix the technical standards and mandatory rules for those services and to define who must deliver them and how.

Six programmes under one rulebook

• Reproductive health, maternal and child health.
• The National Immunization Programme.
• Communicable disease prevention and control.
• Non-communicable diseases and lifestyle-related diseases.
• Environmental health.
• Health promotion and public health awareness.

Each programme occupies its own part of the regulation, with separate articles on objectives, services, delivery arrangements, guidelines and standards.

Maternal care, immunisation and surveillance

The maternal and newborn part requires registration of every pregnant woman in the national registry, antenatal and postnatal care cards, iron and folic acid supplementation, family planning and counselling services, and growth monitoring and promotion for children. The non-communicable disease part requires health screening for blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, heart and mental health conditions, and tobacco cessation services.

The immunisation part fixes the National Immunization Schedule, cold chain and cold chain equipment requirements, and reporting of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). It also covers travel vaccines and optional vaccines recommended by a health worker outside the national schedule. The communicable disease part requires case-based and event-based surveillance investigations, laboratory surveillance, outbreak investigation and the use of universal transport media and sample carriers, alongside rules for contact tracing and ring vaccination and reference to the International Health Regulations (IHR).

Emergencies, inspections and promotion

• Emergency preparedness is anchored in the Health Emergency Operation Centre (HEOC), the Health Emergency Operation Plan and the National Pandemic Preparedness and Response Plan, with rapid assessment and risk assessment duties.
• Public health inspections in the Greater Malé area are carried out by the Health Protection Agency, the Maldives Food and Drug Authority and the ministry; on other islands, by the island health centre.
• Health promotion work is to be run with partners including the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the CDC.

The regulation also lists the instruments that inspections must follow, among them Law No. 7/2012 on public health protection, Law No. 15/2010 on tobacco control, Law No. 6/2024 on food safety, Regulation 2024/R-63, Regulation 2025/R-18 and Regulation 2025/R-21.

Because Article 69 makes the regulation effective from the date of publication, facilities and providers nationwide are already bound by it, with no transition period. The practical effect is that preventive care, vaccination, disease surveillance, outbreak response, emergency preparedness, inspection and health promotion now operate under a single enforceable national standard rather than programme-by-programme practice.

Source: Government Gazette of the Maldives, No. 159, 14 October 2026, Volume 55, pp. 1–58 (official reference: 2026/G-27).