Healthcare in Goa does not come cheap especially when compared to other states in the country.
Over the last few years, however, Goa has been witnessing a boom in healthcare industry with the proliferation of hospitals and nursing homes in the state complimenting the government’s initiative in providing affordable medical care to the locals and others residing here.
With private sector players investing hugely in the healthcare sector in Goa, locals who were hitherto making a beeline for the KLES and KMC Manipal Hospital in the neighbouring state of Karnataka for treatment of chronic ailments were in for a big relief with the setting up of equally good hospitals fully-equipped with state-of-art diagnostic and therapeutic departments to facilitate treatment of a wide range of medical complaints.
The concept of healthy living further got a boost in the state with the patient-centric approach of these hospitals transforming the lives of many patients from within the state and outside.
With instances of rare medical cases, their successful treatments and miraculous recoveries by patients hitting the headlines every other day, Goa was in for some quality medical care courtesy some of the country’s big names in healthcare industry who decided to start operations in the state.
But unlike other ‘business’ enterprises, a feeling that the medical fraternity was making a fast buck at the cost of the ill and infirm was soon giving a bad name to the multi-specialty hospitals.
Let us first realize that healthcare is a big business, and now it is being run like one. ‘Hospitals are not like businesses, they are businesses’!
“The main goal of any business is to generate revenue and make profit from the company’s operations by full-filling a need within the market. Hospitals are no different. However due to the nature of the healthcare, their business models must account for a plethora of healthcare specific challenges - patient care for instance.”
The corporate hospitals have had to also contend with the notion of allotment of monthly ‘quotas’ for their medical and surgical consultants to enhance the earnings.
However, the contentions notwithstanding, these hospitals with their team of specialists were proving to be a lifeline for the locals who could now take pride in having the best of medical care in their very own state.
The hospitals meanwhile were doing exceeding well even though the feasibility of setting up super-specialty centers with the very best and most modern of facilities and care in the state was not without its risks considering that the GMC, as the premier medical institute in the state, was catering to maximum number of people.
Yet the state government was magnanimous enough to grant the maximum number of medical centers permission to operate within Goa.
However, with the Goa Medical College deciding to upgrade its services some time back to include the best that medical sciences could provide the common man, the in-patient and OPD volumes in the corporate and other big hospitals began to shrink drastically.
These hospitals that were doing extremely well commercially until then are now compelled to curtail their activities to health insurance schemes like the DDSSY run by the government of Goa.
With a major share of business lost to state-run services and to competition from the smaller nursing homes, the secondary and tertiary care hospitals were soon in dire straits with many faced with the bleak prospect of closing down operations completely.
The closure of the NUSI-Wockhardt hospital in Cuncolim has come as a big disappointment for the Goan seafarers!
Not to say the Goa Medical College hospital is doing a yeoman service with many a Goan having a bitter experience of the premier medical institute’s ‘hospitality’. The haste shown by the state Health Minister to outsource many of the activities in the premier medical institute has not helped matters either.
Patients with ailments which require immediate hospitalization and procedural treatment being denied appointments with the concerned medical experts on account of long waiting-lists hardly does justice to the government claims of prompt and efficient medical attention at the GMC.
How prudent is the move by the state government in denying the multi-specialty hospitals their share of business by bringing all such services under one roof at the GMC!
It is with pride the state government asserts that Goa’s health sector has been keeping pace with scientific advances to meet the demands of locals and international tourists.
However, with Goa looking at promoting medical tourism in a big way by encashing on the world-class medical facilities, trained professional and top quality infrastructure available in the state, it comes as a big surprise that the government has been lop-sided in its approach by sidelining the private sector players in favour of the state-run facilities.
In the absence of well-equipped district hospitals in the state to cater to the needs of local patients, it is essential that the government recognizes the importance of the few specialty-hospitals that exist and helps them sustain quality healthcare in the state.
