MARGAO
The Health Minister on Saturday said the government would take a call in the next fortnight whether to utilize the top two floors at the South Goa district hospital for a medical college or a nursing college.
When the media sought to know from the Health Minister whether the government will go in for a private medical college or a nursing college at the South district hospital, the Health Minister shot back “if not a medical college, we will start a nursing college on the top two floors of the hospital. This decision will be taken by the government in the next 15 days”.
The government had drawn flak for its proposal to set up a private medical college on top two floors of the South Goa district hospital, with opposition parties questioning the logic behind granting government hospital space to a private institute.
In fact, the opposition parties had slammed the announcement in the budget to set up a private medical college in the government-run hospital building, raising fears of the return of capitation fees in the state.
While the government had utilized only the first three floors of the South Goa district hospital to set up the 568 Covid beds in the second wave, the top two floors remained untouched, and were only being used for accommodation of the health care workers on duty, especially doctors and paramedics working in the gynecology department.
