THE GOAN I NETWORK
MARGAO
After a fortnight-long disruption in the services on account of Covid-19 pandemic, government-run Hospicio has decided to resume operations in all the OPDs in the hospital, beginning from Monday.
Following instructions issued by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday, Hospicio Medical Superintendent Dr Ira Almeida had a meeting with a team of doctors and other officials on Sunday and decided to
start the OPD operations from Monday.
For over a fortnight now, crowding near the Hospicio entrance gate had literally become a norm with people and patients queueing up to visit the hospital. While the Hospicio had kept open the casualty and emergency
OPDs, besides gynecology and paediatrics, other OPDs were all shut down as per the government’s previous order.
The Hospicio Medical Superintendent informed that all the OPDs will resume operations from Monday as per the government order.
“Some of the Hospicio’s OPDs were in operation during the lockdown period, but all the of these will resume operations from Monday,” she said.
Doctors at the government- owned hospital, however, keep their fingers
crossed over the number of visitors visiting the hospital. The government has not lifted the lockdown and public transport is still a far cry. Even private transport is disrupted with the menin- uniform setting up nakabandis at the vital junctions and entry and exit points.
“Right now, we had around 25 per cent visitors on an average during the lockdown. The number may go up to 50 per cent for want of public transport systems,” sources said.
Sources in Hospicio, however, said that inquiries at the entrance gates manned by the security personnel will continue, and the visitors will be allowed after due enquiry to ensure there’s no overcrowding at the OPDs.
That’s not all. Screening at the entrance gates will also continue since Hospicio has set up Covid-19 OPDs on the ground floor in addition to the screening points manned by doctors.
Sources say Hospicio normally used to play host to around 700 visitors a
day on an average, but the figure has come down to around 200 following COVID- 19 pandemic.
As reported earlier, Hospicio’s bed occupancy is now hovering around 40
per cent, with most of the OPDs shut down and the admissions taking place only in emergency cases.
