the goan I network
MARGAO
Even as the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) has claimed that civil works on the long-delayed district hospital are on the right track, beleaguered patients at the Hospicio have only a question to ask the government “ whether their ordeal of sharing beds will finally end by year-end?
With just seven days to go for the current month to end, GSIDC General Manager, Jude Carvalho told The Goan on Monday that the GSIDC is well on course to achieve the September-end deadline to hand over the hospital building to the Health Services. “I am confident that the major civil works on the district hospital building would be complete by the month end. Right now, around 95 per cent work on the hospital project is over. Some of the minor works may take some more days in order to give final touches to the building,” he said.
Jude informed that a couple of imported OTs have arrived and are in the process of being installed, while the remaining units are on the way. “I can say with confidence that the civil work on the building should be over by the month end. There may be some minor works which can be completed and given final touches in another 10-15 days,” he added.
Sources in the know informed that even if the GSIDC puts all the civil works in place by mid-October, the government will have two-months-and-half at its disposal to get the Hospicio operations shifted to the new district hospital.
Incidentally, while the GSIDC has undertaken to complete all civil works on the long-delayed hospital by September-end, the government is yet to unveil the date for the commissioning of the much-awaited hospital, with Health Minister Vishwajit Rane only handing out an assurance that the hospital will be inaugurated at the earliest.
In the meantime, with the government exploring the possibility of utilising the top two floors for the hospital, as against the earlier decision to use the floors for a nursing institute, the GSIDC, sources said has decided to keep all work on hold on the top two floors
till there’s clarity from the
government.
Sources said the GSIDC has for the time being kept on hold the internal works on the top two floors for want of clarity on the exact purpose these floors will be used in the scheme of things.
Even as the GSIDC has exuded confidence of completing the civil works on the new district hospital, around three-km away from Hospicio, patients are asking the same old question, when will be the new district hospital commissioned by the government.
This question did the rounds in the corridors of the 150-year-old hospital as patients were made to share beds, with some patients even taking treatment on the floor, for want of beds. Patients sharing beds or taking treatment on the floor is a common sight at Hospicio given the space constraints faced by the hospital, and the long-delayed district hospital yet to see the light of day.
