Over the past few years I am sad to state that it has become a regular practice for doctors and consultants in private practice and hospitals in Goa to be very irregular in observing timings of their scheduled visits and appointments on some pretext or the other. Patients as a result have to wait endlessly for the doctor, as even hospitals are not able to tell what time the doctor will arrive. Senior citizens are the ones who are the worst hit. The usual excuse is delay due to traffic hold-ups and road repair work. It is hoped that a better sense of duty and responsibility prevails among doctors and consultants, to ease the burden on patients, as the situation at present has worsened and spiralled out of control.
