Patients forced to get treated on stretchers or return home
South Goa district hospital building.
MARGAO
A shortage of beds continues to plague the male and female medicine wards at the South Goa District Hospital, forcing patients to either undergo treatment on stretchers and wheelchairs or return home untreated for want to adequate number of beds.
This ongoing crisis is particularly perplexing given that the top two floors of the district hospital, commissioned nearly half a decade ago — remain idle and vacant. What may sound strange is the fact that rather than utilizing these floors to expand the hospital’s bed capacity and ease the burden on the existing wards, the government has been planning to convert the space into a nursing college.
Consider this: A young girl suffering from suspected food poisoning was rushed to the hospital recently. Although doctors recommended her admission, the family chose to return home upon learning that no beds were available in the medicine ward.
This situation has reignited an old and contentious debate: Is it wise to repurpose hospital infrastructure for a nursing college when patients either return home for want of beds or undergo treatment on stretchers and wheel-chairs?
Doctors at the South district hospital expressed their helplessness in addressing the growing problem of bed shortage in the male and female medicine wards. In fact, a doctor was candid in admitting that the situation is more acute during the monsoons when there’s a surge in patients.
The severe bed shortage had figured at the ongong session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, but doctors at the district hospital prefer to keep their fingers crossed.
“All we know is that the government had given the nod to utilize the hospital’s top two floors for the nursing college. We have no idea whether the government will do a re-think on the setting up the nursing college at the hospital,” remarked a hospital doctor.
The official, however, hastened to add and to caution that augmenting the bed strength at the district hospital will not suffice unless the move is backed by increase in manpower. “As it is, the hospital staff comprising of doctors and nurses are required to attend to patients more than the sanctioned bed strength. Increasing the bed strength without a corresponding manpower increase will further overburden the doctors and nurses”, the official warned.
The South Goa district hospital was planned and executed during the tenure of former Congress Chief Minister Digmabar Kamat and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane. Sources informed the former Chief Minister envisioned a 500-bed facility to address the chronic bed shortage faced at the old Hospicio hospital building, which lacked space for expansion.
More than a decade later, that foresight appears justified, source pointed out, adding that the current 350-bed capacity is clearly insufficient to meet the growing healthcare needs of South Goa’s population.
Says a citizen: “If the half-a-decade old hospital building is facing bed shortage in 2025, just imagine a situation after a couple of years. A spacious district hospital building was built by the then government taking into account the perennial bed shortage at the old Hospicio building and to cater to the future requirements. The very purpose of going for a spacious building to house the hospital will be defeated”.
