PANAJI
Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane has long been talking about revamping the state’s health institution, the GMC. As part of the plan, he now wants to restart his projects that were in the pipeline during his last stint as health minister beginning with strengthening the cardiology centre in the state.
Plans include improving the blood bank at GMC, stem cell banking and defer any moves to privatize the state hospital, instead suggesting outsourcing only certain facilities.
Announcing plans that have been submitted to the state government, Rane wants to put in place a
system by which patients affected with cardiac problems will be able to get better services closer to their residences than having to be rushed to a hospital.
“We will identify certain PHCs and CHCs; train the doctor there so the patient can be thrombolysed there. The Chief Minister has said we need to re-look at the universal health scheme, DDSSY and make the medicine that would be required to be included in it. Every vial costs around Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. We will put it under this scheme so it is taken care of. The main idea is to save lives. In this case, if the window period is increased, it will help in saving the lives of the patients. Now what happens is that if it is not given in the specific period, it damages the heart and the damage cannot be repaired,” he said.
Rane hopes to achieve the required infrastructure to be in place with the help of an organization, STEMI India, that has been recognized by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and whose work has been implemented in the national rural health mission as well.
STEMI India has a protocol to handle cardiac emergency where clusters will be set up along with a central hospital. The clusters including PHCs and CHCs will deal with cardiac cases at the point of contact. Here patients will be thrombalysed in order to increase the window period for receiving treatment.
By giving medicines like Elexin, which is part of the protocol the patient can then be sent to the hospital. “And in the state, STEMI India and GVK EMRI will be signing the MoU and the health department will see how to manage this entire situation,” said Rane.
Plans are also underway to strengthen the cardiac wing of the GMC. A proposal to add more consultants to the cardiology wing has been sent to the CM. This Rane said would ensure 24 x 7 doctors and services for patients.
GMC will also be getting new fleets of ambulances by the end of May. Motorcycle ambulances will also be be mde available by June end or beginning of July.
Initiatives like the pre insulin and new born baby screening will be put back on track. The Diabetes Registry will also be
