MARGAO
With the new district hospital still awaiting the final fire NOC, Hospicio authorities, including doctors and paramedics, are completely against the idea of shifting the services to the new hospital in a hurry.
Against the backdrop of fire engulfing a couple of hospitals across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, Hospicio doctors have sounded a word of caution, saying it will be safe to shift the hundreds of patients and the services to the new hospital only after the Fire Services gives the final NOC.
“We feel that the government should not shift to the new hospital in a hurry. Let the Fire Services issue the final NOC and then we can start moving to the new hospital. Comparatively, the old Hospicio building is much safer from the fire point of view with several entry and exit points and the wide doors and windows,” remarked a doctor.
When The Goan pointed out that the Director of Health Services has already shifted Hospicio OPD services and male and medicine wards to the district hospital sans the fire NOC, a doctor explained saying that the Hospicio has shifted the two wards because of the COVID-19 pandemic as the male and female medicine wards are always overcrowded and would have posed a Covid threat to both the patients and the healthcare workers.
“Just because two wards and the OPD services have been shifted to the district hospital does not mean that we should shift the entire Hospicio to the district hospital,” another senior doctor remarked, saying the GSIDC should set in motion the process so that the agency obtains the fire NOC at the earliest.
