Long wait at Hospicio, man rushes to KLE for operation

MARGAO: Hospicio was back in the news again, this time for orthopedic operations conducted at government-run hospital in South Goa.

A newspaper delivery man who had a fractured leg in a self-accident at home, headed to the KLE hospital, Belgaum on Thursday to undergo an operation after Hospicio point-blank told him that surgeries were performed only on Mondays and Thursdays.
The victim, Raju Patil, had got himself admitted to the Hospicio on Wednesday and was told after an examination that his left leg had suffered a fracture and that he needed to undergo an operation. On Thursday, Raju was told by the visiting doctor that he would have to wait till Monday to undergo a surgery since the hospital performed operations only twice a week.
Left with no option, the victim managed to get a discharge note from Hospicio and straight away headed to KLE in Belgaum by an ambulance. He is scheduled to undergo an operation in the Belgaum hospital on Friday. "I had no option than to seek discharge from Hospicio after I was told that my leg would be operated upon only on Monday. I had to wait either till Monday or go to a private hospital to undergo an operation," Patil told The Goan.
When The Goan called up Hospicio medical superintendent, Dr Ira Almeida to shed light on the orthopedic surgeries conducted at the hospital, she pointed out that that the hospital conducted surgeries only twice a week, since the orthopedic doctors were pre-occupied at the OPDs during the remaining days of the week. "I will find out why the patient decided to seek discharge from the hospital.
However, Hospicio orthopedic surgeons conduct operations only on Mondays and Thursdays. This is because the doctors have to attend to patients in the OPD during the rest of the week," she said.
When questioned why the patients had to wait for days to undergo an operation, she shot back "the hospital do carry out emergency orthopedic operations, but depending on the availability of stents. If the stents are available, it is well and good. Otherwise, patients will have to wait for the designated days to undergo the operations."