What does pictures of Hospicio staff carrying saplings in wheelchairs and rice bags being transported on stretchers convey? Is this the picture we get of the sorry state of healthcare in South Goa? Or are the powers that be going to tell us that it’s all part of the shifting process to the new state-of-the-art South Goa district hospital?
While the State gears up for a quantum leap in healthcare with state-of-the-art facilities, the health of the common man and the lesser privileged continues to be ignored in South Goa.
Hospicio which boasts of a 150-year history has been a hub of medical care for the economically weaker sections, especially from South Goa. It’s a different story that successive governments have failed to give it a shot in the arm to meet the growing needs of the people. Here’s a place where nobody cares, where disorder has been the order of every single day. Where patients spend nights finding comfort on the floors, and clean linen and fans remain an unseen luxury.
But the agonizing part is that our sprawling new South Goa District Hospital is taking painfully long and it is only hurting the common man. There can’t be a compromise on the health of the people who still turn to Hospicio for their medical needs and emergencies. They can’t wait endlessly in hope.
And while the government keeps on issuing deadlines after deadlines, the new hospital appears to be still far from opening. If we may recall from 2010 till now, we have heard of only deadlines. If Francis D’Souza during his tenure as Health Minister had set a time-frame of December 2016, there have been countless such dates between the Laxmikant Parsekar and Manohar Parrikar regimes from December 2017 to March and thereafter at every auspicious day from Independence Day to Liberation Day and Republic Day. We have come to the latest deadline of six months for structural completion set by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane.
But why would a public service project of this importance and urgency take such a prolonged time of nearly a decade when the government has shown an inordinate hurry in completing other projects like highways and bridges.
And at a time when government is talking about super-specialty blocks, dedicated tertiary cancer units, organ transplants, dedicated trauma and emergency wards, we fail to understand why healthcare remains a distant dream for South Goa.
While Hospicio continues to be on life-support and the new hospital is still taking shape, people in South will look forward to the renewed bonhomie between TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai and Vishwajit for an immediate health update.
