MARGAO
Goa Forward Chief Vijai Sardesai on Wednesday said that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s visit to the Goa Medical College and hospital and the South Goa district hospital have achieved nothing and have proven to be mere PR exercises or a step before he takes over the Health portfolio.
“To strip a cabinet colleague of his portfolio remains the CM’s prerogative. Strip the Health Minister of his portfolio but don’t sacrifice more lives of Goans to win an internal power struggle in the ruling party”, Sardesai said, while addressing the media on Wednesday after the High Court invoked Article 21- Right to Life on a PIL on oxygen shortage past midnight causing 26 and 21 deaths at GMC on two consecutive nights.
He said a High Court monitored task force of experts and good local Goan officers is the only way forward in this Covid crisis.
Pointing out to a government order appointing IAS officers including the Director of Industries as Nodal Officer for allocation and management of oxygen for all hospitals in the state, Sardesai urged the government to utilize Goan officers in this war like situation. “Use experience from within the opposition ranks by saying Let us unite against the Pandemic. Let us import vaccines through a global tender like Orissa if Serum Institute isn’t going to supply us”, he said, while referring to the global tender for Covid19 Vaccines floated by Govt of Orissa post a cabinet decision taken on 10 May.
“Let us follow Kerala’s and BMC models, which have been considered as successful models inspite of high positivity rate. Let us utilise the two vacant floors of SGDH for 200 more beds. These two floors can accommodate 200 beds as they have 40 washrooms catering to the sanitary requirements”, he added.
Sardesai also took objection to the Chief Minister blaming patients coming to the hospitals at the last minute as the reason for high mortality, saying “that appointments for testing take three days, and it take two days to get the report and by the time the elusive kits for home isolation reach the patients , they are already in deep trouble, further accentuated by less number of ICU beds and non existent data on their availability”.
