the goan I network
PANAJI
The year-long tenure of Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has been marked by a spree of outsourcing responsibilities traditionally shouldered by government staff casting a spell of gloom over the now unemployed staff as well as certain communities who have been rendered out of business.
One of the first services to be outsourced by the health department was the handling and management of the round-the-clock pharmacy unit at the GMC complex. While the Goa Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd-run pharmacy on GMC complex has survived, the in-house pharmacy at the GMC, set up in partnership with Wellness Forever Group, has threatened the business of other pharmacists in and around the complex.
GAPL-run pharmacy was retained as it is a public sector unit supported by the state government. However, unlike this undertaking, the new pharmacy with 15 counters and an additional outlet at the Yatri Niwas has been set up in collaboration with a group based in Mumbai. This has not only rendered the staff employed in other five pharmacies at GMC jobless but has also raised the question of why the health department did not choose to hand over the contract to GAPL instead, thereby ensuring that business remains within the bounds of the state.
The latest decision of the health department to outsource the centralized laundry unit at Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim to a private housekeeping company also falls in this category. Ecoclean systems and solutions, the private housekeeping company which has bagged the contract, will now be operating the laundry equipment which can wash 6,000 units a day.
Previously, the laundry used to cater to the GMC and both district hospitals. However, it has now been made mandatory for all government hospitals and health centers to send their linen to the GMC centralized laundry for washing.
Not only has this decision threatened the employment of the laundry staff previously employed at all these health centers and hospitals, but it has also harmed the business of the local community, padvalls.
The health department now plans to e-tender all seven canteens on the GMC complex in order to bring the food at par with AIIMS standards. The tender document makes it clear that the bidders should have an annual turnover of Rs 15 crore, effectively eliminating all local service providers while simultaneously rendering some 100-odd people unemployed.
While professionalism has to be inculcated in services provided in the health sector, the department staff has begun to question the wisdom behind outsourcing all peripheral jobs as well as the distrust shown by the Health Minister in his own low-cadre staff.
PHARMACY
Goa Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd-run pharmacy on GMC complex survives, but the in-house pharmacy at the GMC, set up in partnership with Wellness Forever Group, has threatened the business of other pharmacists in and around the complex
LAUNDRY
Ecoclean systems and solutions, the private housekeeping company which has bagged the contract, will now be operating the laundry equipment which can wash 6,000 units a day
CANTEEN
The tender document makes it clear that the bidders should have an annual turnover of Rs 15 crore, effectively eliminating all local service providers while simultaneously rendering some 100-odd people unemployed.
