MARGAO
The two major Covid hospitals in down South, the South Goa district hospital and the ESI hospital, Margao may have seen reduced number of admissions in recent days, bringing a sigh of relief to the health workers.
Those heading these two hospitals, however, are now pre-occupied with another issue of sorts -- issuance of certificates to the hundreds of persons, who succumbed to Covid.
With the department of Planning and Statistics and the Office of the Chief Registrar of Births and Deaths firmly ruling out disclosure of cause of death on the death certificates issued by the Civic and Panchayat bodies, the kith and kin of the dead are making a beeline in these two hospitals for certificates containing the cause of death. And, not to mention the documents submitted by the insurance companies in respect of the claims received from the relatives of the deceased.
So far, the South Goa district hospital is believed to have received around 30-40 applications for issuance of death certificates, while the ESI hospital, which recorded relatives few death cases, have been in receipt of handful of applications.
Given that the South Goa district hospital had reported around 500-plus Covid-related deaths in the last 10-11 months, the hospital is bracing up to tone up the administrative section to ensure the applicants receive the death certificates of their near and dear ones at the earliest.
In fact, district hospital Nodal Officer, Dr Rajesh Patil is on the job to tone up the administrative section of the hospital to process the applications and issue the death certificates. The hospital has received bare minimum staff comprising of an UDC and a LDC from the Hospicio hospital, and the administration is looking forward for additional staff in the administrative section to meet the situation.
Says hospital Nodal Officer, Dr Rajesh Patil: “The South district Covid hospital has recorded around 500-plus deaths in the last 10-11 months. We have so far received around 30-40 applications for the certificates citing the cause of death. But, we foresee a rush of applicants in the coming days as the certificates issued by the hospital is the only piece of proof to certify that the person died of Covid”.
Dr Patil added, “The process in issuing the certificates is cumbersome for the simple reason that the district hospital had around 5000-plus admissions as on date. The staff has to go through the whole lot of documents before issuing the certificates”.
As of now, the hospital takes around four days to issue the certificates for the applicants, but the hospital hopes to streamline the situation after receiving additional manpower.
“Apart from the death certificates, insurance companies have been sending documents to the hospital concerning the dead persons. We have to process these documents as well”, he added.
