the goan I network
PANAJI
Neurologists are stretching beyond their call of duty, skipping lunch and working four to five hours beyond official closure timings to cater to a soaring number of footfalls at the Out Patient Department of the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim.
But even as patients seeking treatment and medical advice pertaining to neurology are increasing, a perennial shortage of doctors with specialisation in the field is taxing the few who man the department at GMC.
“There are times when we continuously examine patients for six hours at a stretch. Several times we don’t even break for lunch and finish our OPD duties at 5 or 6 pm,” said one of the junior doctors posted for duty at OPD (Neurology).
Goa as a whole faces a shortage of neurologists in general. Even in the private healthcare sector, a neurologist is a rare find.
The unusual rush of patients, averaging 160-190 per day, has forced the authorities at the GMC to modify OPD registration rules to accommodate all who report by 11.30 am.
The Neurology Department at the GMC is manned by one consultant in Dr Teresa Ferreira, two clinical neurophysiologists “ Dr Joaquim Proenca and Dr Shilpa Narulkar - and three assistant lecturers in Dr Zico D’Costa, Dr Varun Kakode and Dr Siddesh Bhosale.
The top hierarchy at the GMC, meanwhile, can do little to remedy the situation as very few students opt for post-graduation in the field. Also, among the few who indeed opt for neurology and go on to man department, the attrition is high. In fact about a year ago, a consultant Dr Parul Dubey quit and transitioned to the private sector.
The State government’s health ministry on its part has done little to intervene other than unusually corresponding to and from between the offices of the GMC Dean and the Under Secretary (Health).
In one such communication in December last year, the under-secretary (Health) wrote to the Dean of the GMC seeking explanations for issues raised in a citizen’s complaint.
But other than admitting to the shortage of hands at the OPD, the doctors facing nightmarish hours to manage the soaring number of patients have found little solace from the government in adopting out-of-the-box ideas to attract neurology specialists to join the GMC roster.
