There is no denying that Goa has, over the years, cultivated the image of a modern healthcare State. The focus on wellness and healthcare has been prominent. Promotional campaigns and policy announcements routinely point to the state’s high per capita health spending, upgraded infrastructure and expansion of specialised services, from newly inaugurated MRI facilities to promised Cath labs.
However, behind this polished image of “swastha” lies a grim reality. The recent crisis at Hospicio South Goa District Hospital in Margao has exposed it starkly: Patients being treated in armchairs, crowded onto stretchers or left lying in corridors because there are not enough beds. These are not the signs of a hospital grappling with an occasional seasonal surge. They point to a deeper failure in delivering basic public healthcare. When a major district hospital has to procure chairs with armrests so that patients can sit through intravenous treatment because beds are unavailable, something is going terribly wrong.
For one, the bed crisis is not entirely a question of available space. It is a question of how that space is being used. The four-storey hospital was built to meet the growing and increasingly specialised healthcare needs of South Goa. This question has been repeatedly doing the rounds for the past few years. Yet while patients are being squeezed into corridors and whatever space is available, entire portions of the building remain unavailable for patient care. The fourth floor houses a nursing college, while there have also been attempts in the past to earmark hospital space for private medical ventures.
The question is, are the priorities misplaced? Or is the hospital taken for granted? At a time when patients are struggling to find a bed, the government should not have to “examine” whether space in a hospital built for patients can actually be used for patients. The gap between official statements and the reality inside the hospital stands exposed.
Secondly, there is the question of manpower. When the sanctioned bed capacity was increased from 350 to 500 a year ago, the hospital had sought what should have been a basic requirement to support that expansion: 25 doctors, 50 nurses and 100 Multi-Tasking Staff. A year later, only five additional doctors have reportedly been provided, with virtually no corresponding increase in MTS personnel. Hospitals can’t function on infrastructure alone, and the shortage of doctors, nurses, technicians and support staff is only going to make it worse.
The government’s proposed solutions also appear to address symptoms rather than the disease. The idea of “reverse transfers”, under which recovering patients would be shifted back to Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres, may have merit as part of a properly planned referral system. But it cannot become a substitute for adequate capacity at the district hospital. Worse, the proposal itself has reportedly been held up because the hospital does not have enough ambulances for the purpose.
A hospital is not defined by promises, its equipment or the number of services announced. It is defined by whether a sick person can walk through its doors and receive timely treatment. The current situation is another reminder that the South Goa District Hospital needs a holistic upgrade — both in terms of beds and manpower. A band-aid fix will not help. Until the issues at the district hospitals are fixed, the talk of healthcare excellence will ring hollow.
