MARGAO
The next time you drop your relative to the South Goa district Covid hospital for admission, you may find the staff telling you to remove the gold and valuables before the patient is taken inside.
That’s not all. Patients may not need to look out for caretakers outside the hospital when the administration is in the process of putting a mechanism in place where the patient can opt for a registered caretaker.
These and other measures are reported to have been suggested by the nodal officer for South Goa district hospital Prasanna Acharya to stop unscrupulous touts and agents from taking advantage at the cost of the Covid patients admitted in the Covid hospitals.
In fact, Acharya has been on the job to lay guidelines for the appointment of caretakers in the Covid hospitals to rule out the possibility of agents fleecing the patients during their period of treatment.
With instances of caretakers charging hefty fees, from Rs 5,000 onwards, the administration is also on the job to cap the fees for the caretakers in the interest of the patients.
District hospital officials have also suggested that the caretakers be entrusted with the responsibility of handing over the food packets to the patients given that it sometimes consumes lot of time for the hospital multi-tasking staff to serve food to the 500-odd patients in a short time.
The Goan understands that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has called for early implementation of a SOP for the caretakers to stop exploitation of the patients undergoing treatment at the Covid hospitals.
In fact, during his visit to the South Goa District Hospital, the Chief Minister was believed to have raised the issue with the hospital administrators, insisting that the SOP for the caretakers should be implemented at the earliest.
The Goan understands that nodal officer Prasanna Acharya has submitted the draft SOP for the caretakers to the district Collector, South Ruchika Katyal. The same is expected to come into force after a nod from the authorities.
A senior district hospital official has informed that the hospital will now make sure that the relatives take custody of the gold and other valuables before the patient is admitted. “We do not want any patient to complain that their valuables have gone missing during their period of treatment in the hospital. There are around 530-odd patients, besides and a good number of caretakers. It is next to impossible for the hospital staff to take care of the belongings of the patients,” the official said.
More than anything else, officials are looking forward to the SOP on caretakers at least to cap the fees and put an end to unscrupulous persons taking advantage of the situation. “We have information that one caretaker is taking care of 3-4 patients at a time. We want to streamline the system,” the official added.
