THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday conceded that the promised super-speciality block will take a while longer even as he admitted that the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) was wilting under the pressure of "tremendous load."
Speaking after the launch of "Sodexo Food Services" for nursing students at the Nursing Institute in Bambolim, Rane said that though the GMC was wilting under "tremendous load", the super-speciality block would be some time coming, as the Goa government was looking to see if it could get help from outside the state with the super-speciality hospital.
"We're looking at a balanced model to run the super-speciality hospital since it's a huge hospital. The new hospital has to be a center of excellence with an innovative model to run it," said Rane, claiming that the project would be the "largest hospital under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) in the country."
"It will be even bigger than the one inaugurated by the PM in Gujarat," said Rane, refusing to name a time-frame by when the super-speciality hospital would be completed. He said that the Goa government would need to study "four or five models" of other hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister already has plans for the canteen of the super-speciality block, insisting that it will be run by the same "Sodexo" - a French food company headquartered in Paris.
Rane said that Sodexo has come as a blessing to students at the nursing institute most of whom, according to him, had to "eat in unhygienic conditions".
"The nursing students had nowhere to go for nutritious food, so we tied up with Sodexo," he said.
