MARGAO
The availability of ambulances to transport the sick to and from government hospitals still leaves much to be desired. But, even the dead are not spared either for want of hearse vans at the disposal of government-run hospitals.
It's not uncommon to find relatives of the dead ending up in coughing up huge amount of money on private hearse vans to transport the dead to the mortuaries or home.
Otherwise, consider this. An elderly lady is believed to have been expired at the Hospicio a day ago. Relatives made frantic enquiries with the Hospicio authorities for a hearse van, only to be told that Hospicio has no independent hearse van, and they requisition the police hearse van only in medico-legal cases. Left with no option, the relatives went searching for a hearse van parked outside the hospital and they did find a van outside. Hazard a guess how much money was charged by the private hearse van just to transport the dead from Hospicio to the mortuary atop the Monte Hill, a distance of 1.5 km - a whopping Rs 700.
When The Goan called up Hospicio Medical Superintendent Dr Ira Almeida to shed light on the absence of hearse vans with the government-run hospitals, she conceded that Hospicio has no hearse van of its own. In fact, she was frank in admitting that the government-run hospital depends on the police van to transport medico-legal cases.
While expressing her helplessness in meeting the requirements of hearse vans, Dr Almeida, however, said that the Health Minister's proposal to convert ageing ambulances into hearse vans may offer a solution to the problem of hearse vans. "The Health Minister has announced that the old ambulances will be converted into hearse vans and place them at the GMC, Bambolim and other district hospitals to transport the dead," she added.
Sources in the know informed that relatives have to pay huge amounts to private hearse van operators at the Goa Medical College and hospital for want of government-operated hearse vans.
