PANAJI
Former minister and Nuvem MLA, Aleixo Sequeira, on Monday voiced the demand to name the new South Goa district hospital after the founder of its predecessor Hospicio in Margao Fr Antonio Joao de Miranda.
Sequeira made the demand in the Goa legislative assembly while participating in the discussion on the demands for grants to the health department.
He said, the Hospicio was started by Fr Miranda by going around the entire Salcete to seek donations in a house with just 10 beds as there were no other health facility in those times and people were dying on the roads and public places.
Sequeira said the hospital grew leaps and bounds over the years and had up to 1000-plus beds capacity at its peak before it was shifted to the new district hospital premises.
He also said that the old Hospicio edifice could qualify as a heritage structure and needed to be preserved with usage for setting up institutes for nursing or niche medical courses in super-specialities like biomedical engineering, etc, which are the need of the hour in health services.
The demand to name the South Goa district hospital after Fr Miranda was backed by Independent legislator Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco.
