MARGAO
While the South Goa district hospital’s top two floors are lying vacant without utilization, the dedicated Covid hospital in Margao is full to its capacity, with patients struggling to get beds, given the spike in cases every day.
Though the government had augmented ESI hospital capacity from 100 to 220 beds after Covid showed signs of going out of control around three months ago, only around 207 beds are being actually available for patients in the hospital, with four beds earmarked for dialysis and the balance for pediatrics.
“When cases rise every day in hundreds, the existing facility is bound to come under strain. How is the ESI hospital supposed to handle patients when around 400-500 cases are detected almost every day?” ESI hospital sources wondered.
In fact, ESI doctors in private pointed out that they had made a strong case for the utilization of the entire South Goa district hospital for Covid before the Directorate of Health Services rushed to shift the OPD services and male and female medicine wards in the new building.
“If the entire district hospital was notified as a Covid hospital, we would have got an 800-bedded hospital to house the patients. But the government and the Health Minister have other plans contrary to what is required to provide better facilities to the citizens in times of Covid,” the doctor said.
