MARGAO
It may have outlived its utility since Fr Antonio Joao de Miranda, popularly known as Padre Miranda started the hospital over a century and half ago, but Hospicio’s heritage building has come in handy to serve the common man in times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Around a couple of months ago, when the new district hospital was taking shape, it looked certain that Hospicio’s services will be shifted to the 500-bedded hospital in just a matter of months, more so after the OPD services, followed by the male and female medicine wards were shifted to the spacious building.
With the government declaring the new building as a Covid hospital, the situation, however, has come full circle for Hospicio. Doctors and health workers, who were just bracing up to shift to the new building, in private, say the September 11 deadline to make the South district hospital as a Covid hospital, only means they will have to go to those days when they had literally “squeezed” in the old building for want of space.
And, the pandemic, the health workers, say, is expected to have a telling effect on the space in Hospicio. Sources say that the male and female medicine wards’ beds will have to be re-arranged in such a way that patients are not put to Covid risk in Hospicio.
“We were all bracing up for the day when the Hospicio services are shifted to the new district hospital for the benefit of the patients. But the government decision has brought us back to square one,” remarked a senior doctor.
“We will have no option but to squeeze into whatever space is available in the Hospicio to attend to the patients,” the doctor said.
With just two days to go for the September 11 deadline on the Covid hospital, Hospicio staff was all busy and preoccupied with the task of shifting the tables and other materials from the new hospital to the Hospicio.
“The government decision has only forced the Hospicio officials and staff to revert back the OPD services and the male and female medicine wards back to the old building,” informed a doctor.
Wednesday saw the Hospicio staff engaged in the task of bringing back the items, which were shifted to the new building just a couple of months ago. Vehicles were seen ferrying the items and materials from the district hospital to the Hospicio,” sources said.
Sources in the know said that shifting of the patients in the male and female medicine wards from the district hospital to the Hospicio is expected to take place in a day or two.
