PANAJI
There was a furore in the House on Friday over the issue of expensive stents and implants being unavailable and patients at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) at Bambolim being asked to procure them privately.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane admitted there could be some shortcomings which is understandable for the sheer scale of operations at GMC and assured that some internal audit mechanism will be put in place to check these problems.
Rane said, Goa is the only State in India that gives such expensive stents and implants free of cost to patients and urged MLAs to drop him a message whenever they come across any such instance of patents not getting their implants and he will trouble shoot to resolve the matter.
However, AAP’s Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas and RGP’s Viresh Borkar made a case for a full proof system as not everyone in Goa has access to politicians.
Viegas alleged that the current system seems to be plagued with defects and patients get directed towards a nexus to purchase these implants privately even as he appreciated the minister for his claim that Goa is the only State that gives these free.
Borkar said, some of these stents cost Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 and even more which is beyond the paying capacity of a majority of people.
In response, Rane said that a nodal officer will be appointed to address these issues of non-availability of these implants and several other real-time problems faced by patients at the GMC.
He also said that he will explore the possibility of issuing an item-rate contract where implants not in stock in the GMC are arranged for at short notice by the contractor at a pre-fixed rate.
