Goa Medical College victim of staff apathy, negligence

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2008-11-11
PANAJI - Goa may boast of being the best among the smaller states in providing health care to its people but not every thing appears to be all right in government-run hospitals, which have become victims of bureaucratic wrangles, staff apathy and casualness.
For the poor patients in need of urgent medical attention, getting admitted to the Goa Medical College for getting treatment has become a costly affair as they or their relatives have to buy medicines from the two pharmacies in the college complex or from elsewhere, as no or hardly any medicine is given to the patients from the GMC pharmacy.
The relatives of a poor old lady from Navelim admitted to ward 125 of GMC had to shell out almost Rs 2,000 a day during just over a week during which the lady was being treated for her ailment. Similar was the case of a young girl who was prescribed medicines worth Rs 5,000 during three days when she was in the hospital.
According to the sources in the GMC, though a number of medicines are available in its pharmacy the residents (who are in league with some pharmaceutical companies) prefer to prescribe a certain brand disregarding availability of the same medicine supplied by another to GMC, for obvious reasons. The sources also said that the doctors do not indent the medicine from the GMC pharmacy to be administered to in-patients.
Not only have the medicines to be bought from pharmacies but also some of the tests (like blood gas analysis) are directed to be done from nearby private hospitals as these facilities are not functional in GMC. Many a times, these tests are ordered in the middle of the night and the relatives who accompany the patients have to hire vehicles paying a premium rate and rush to the private hospitals with the samples for reports.
It is not that the GMC does not have the machines for the purpose, the government has procured the same but they are not functional at the moment. According to the sources in GMC the sophisticated machines for the purpose are not being used in absence of cartridges needed for the purpose.
Similarly, according to the authorities though the hospital has a number of wheel chairs and other accessories in its stores the staff attached to the wards rarely indent for the same putting the patients and their relatives to great discomfort who have to wait endlessly to shift their kin to other departments or carry them out when discharged. A few days ago the relatives of an old lady who could not move on her own had to wait for three hours to get their turn to take her out on discharge.
The government’s promise that free medicines would be provided to patients admitted to Goa Medical College has remained just a promise.
The file pertaining to additional budgetary allocation and subsequent procurement of medicine is doing rounds between the joint secretary (health) and joint secretary (budget), with there being no sign of an early end to the merry-go-round.
Subsequent to a cabinet decision some months ago, the government had announced that free medicine would be supplied to all in-patients in government-run hospitals, including the GMC but somehow the bureaucratic wrangles have ensured that the promise given to the people by the Health Minister, Mr Vishwajit Rane has remained just a promise and is not implemented.