MARGAO
Can patients and visitors to the South Goa district hospital hope to see any turnaround in government-run premiere hospital when they visit the hospital on Monday? Or, will the patients have to contend with the existing crowd management system at the OPDs and registration department, which has been found wanting, more so on Mondays?
Around 1500-odd patients and visitors flood the South Goa district hospital almost every day, with the rush more seen on Mondays given that Sunday is a holiday.
Coming Monday isn’t going to be different in any way when hundreds of patients rush to the hospital to the OPDs and registration departments. For, there’s still no mechanism put in place for crowd management at the hospital till date, with the government yet to put in place a system to beef up the manpower requirements to tide over the situation.
Inquiries by The Goan has revealed that district Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Rajendra Borkar had put up a proposal to the Directorate of Health Services to depute additional security personnel for crowd management.
If sources are to be believed, a proposal is also mooted to the government to beef up the registration section by deputing additional manpower from the Information Technology department. Shedding light on the proposals, Dr Borkar pointed out that one cannot increase the space on the ground floor of the hospital building. He, however, hastened to add that there’s scope for improvement in the hospital and to provide relief to the hundreds of patients. “We have proposed to the government to depute additional manpower from the Information Technology department to beef up the registration department. The hospital has also requested the higher authorities to send additional security personnel for crowd management during the peak hours”, he said.
Dr Borkar added: “It’s a fact there’s heavy rush of patients at the South Goa district hospital on Mondays given that Sunday is a holiday. As it is, the hospital receives around 1,500 patients every day for the ODPs and registration. On Mondays the rush is heavy as was witnessed last Monday when over 1,600 patients made a beeline to the hospital early morning”.
Says youth leader Prabhav Naik: “When I called on the district hospital Medical Superintendent to find out the reasons behind the rush of patients in the morning, I realize there online or digital payments are not accepted from the patients at the hospital. Introduction of the token system may help to address the issue to a great extent”,
Prabhav said Health Minister Vishwwajit Rane needs to immediately clear the file & start online payment facility. Hospital administration, however, pointed out that these proposals need approval from the Directorate of Health Services before they are implemented.
Social activist Laurel Abranches only hoped the hospital initiates measures for crowd management in the mornings. “When I visited Hospicio last Monday, I was shocked to find the queue of patients spilling over to the parking lot right along the main road. This has to stop immediately”, he demanded.
