the goan I network
MARGAO
This should come as an eye opener for the government to expedite work on the incomplete South Goa district hospital on a war footing.
The make-shift Hospicio casualty functioning from the office of hospital medical superintendent proved inadequate to cater to the immediate needs of the bus passengers injured in the Canacona accident as the injured had to literally wait for their turn to be attended by the hospital.
While the doctors and the paramedics on duty rose to the occasion to render their attention, help and assistance to the injured, the casualty room came in the way of the smooth operations when passengers were brought to the hospital at one time by the ambulances.
With the make-shift casualty having a provision for three beds/stretchers, only three-four injured patients could be attended at a time, with other patients on wheel chairs either attended on their wheel chairs or had to wait till the patients on the beds were attended and sent for x-rays.
At one stage, when the ambulances brought the second lot of patients to the Hospicio from Canacona, the security guard manning the makeshift casualty door had to literally tell the staff to take out two patients on wheel chairs since it was too congested inside. A hospital official, however, said the patients on the wheelchair had already undergone x-ray and were made to wait outside the casualty for some time since the doctors and nurses were attending patients who were brought in the second lot.
Given that around 19 patients were shifted to Hospicio from Canacona, a rush was also witnessed at the x-ray department since most of the patients had suffered fracture injuries.
Hospicio casualty was earlier functioning from the ground floor of the three-storeyed building near the canteen. The casualty had to be shifted to the old heritage building when the three-storeyed building was declared unsafe after a portion of the balcony showed signs of crumbling.
It was shifted to the room occupied by the Medical Superintendent Dr Ira Almeida, who has since shifted her office on the first floor above the blood bank.
Meanwhile, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Shantaram Naik, who visited Hospicio late Thursday evening, demanded that the government not only complete the South district hospital on topmost priority, but also upgrade the primary health centres so that patients are not required to be shifted to the district hospital.
