Margao: South Goa MP Captain Viriato Fernandes today assured a large delegation of Margao citizens that he would immediately sanction a fully equipped Ambulance for the South Goa District hospital.
A large delegation of Margao citizens led by Savio Coutinho met the MP and expressed deep anguish and pain over the Pitiful state of affairs at the South District Hospital in Margao, whereby patients undergo immense hardships, often resulting in precious lives being lost.
In a representation submitted to Captain Viriato Fernandes, the citizens said that the most disgraceful incident, where a citizen Shri. Shirish Kane from Margao lost his life due to the non-availability of an ambulance, which is a testimony to the fact that immediate attention is required to improve the situation there.
Mr. Savio Coutinho recalled that during his tenure as Chairperson of MMC the foundation stone for the District Hospital was laid. “This Hospital, construction of which was taken up by the erstwhile Congress government in 2010, was planned to have all medical facilities as available at the GMC. And this was very vocally announced by the then Chief Minister and present Margao MLA Digamber Kamat, Mr. CoutinhoSaid. Mr. Kamat had announced that once the South District Hospital would be commissioned, no patient from South Goa would have to go to GMC in Bambolim, he added.
Initially, upon the completion of the District hospital, our Margao MLA was found to be very vocal, as he claimed that the government was not putting the Hospital premises to its optimal use. Thereafter our MLA, gave Madgaonkars the fake impression that he had defected into the ruling BJP party for the welfare of Margao; Taking Madgaonkars on cloud 9 in expecting lot of good to happen, the citizens said in the representation.
In utter contrast, while things are going from bad to worse on one hand, our MLA has expectedly lost his voice to place demands for the welfare of Madgaonkars on the other. He seems to be more occupied in lobbying for a red beacon car, while the public suffer, they complain.
The gravity of this sad situation at the District Hospital can well be imagined by the fact that even the influence of the Ex CM’S Son, could not get the much needed ambulance on time, to shift badly injured Shirish Kane to GMC, they said.
The delegation submitted a list of 5 demands.
1). Make available adequate number of ambulances by
i). Undertaking immediate repairs of some of the existing ambulances And
ii). By purchasing new ambulances. MPLAD funds may kindly be provided if the government is falling short of fund’s.
2). The District Hospital is presently understaffed, and hence additional staff, including doctors and nurses were required. It may be noted that this new District Hospital is functioning with the same old number of staff of the old Hospicio Hospital; while the number of beds and the number of patients have increased manifold here. Many of this old staff have retired, but not yet replaced till date. The Doctors, nurses and MTS staff are working under very stressful conditions due to the increased load of patients.
3). This Hospital which was supposed to have all the medical facilities as available in GMC, is sadly lacking much needed facilities for treatment, and hence patients have to be transferred/referred to the GMC.
4). Additional beds are desperately needed to cater to the large number of patients seeking admission for treatment. Very often patients have to spend several hours on stretchers due to unavailability of beds.
5). The administrative process involved is very tedious and time consuming with patients or their relatives having to stand in long ques for stamping/registration of case papers. The elderly and non literate people are found lost in going through the processes.
The citizens appealed to the MP to use his good office, and funds from the MPLAD scheme, to improve the situation at the South District Hospital in Margao.
Captain Viriato Fernandes while committing himself to provide the Ambulance through the MPLAD scheme, he also assured the delegation to personally visit the Hospital.
