Anew Medical College with additional 100 MBBS seats would make a total of 250 MBBS students together with GMC. Thus at any given point in time, through the 5 year MBBS course in Goa there would be 1,250 under graduate medical students pursuing their studies and graduating in that many numbers eventually at the end of the five-year term. GMC is slated for 150 MBBS seats from this year. An excess number of MBBS doctors would precipitate commercialization and unethical practices like cut-practice and commissions. Ultimately, those who suffer will be people in Goa. A new Medical College requires huge lecture halls, auditoria, multiple practical classrooms, offices for teachers and a host of equipment and infrastructure besides a huge Hospital with beds. It would require dozens of Medical professors with tremendous teaching experience across all specialties and hundreds of Resident Doctors. It is therefore advisable that Government focuses instead on the present needs of the GMC, the District Hospitals and the CHCs. The Government took the right step by abolishing unnecessary posts of Attendants created in haste by vested interests. It was shocking to find 600 attendants appointed for Ponda PHC which has less than 100 OPD patients! Such excess staff must be mobilized for cleanliness across Municipalities. Filling up posts of specialists, teachers, medical officers, nurses is the dire need of the hour. Additional posts of Medical Officers must be created at PHCs to meet the added requirements of the increasing population. Their maintenance, supply of water and electricity, availability of morgues, availability of life saving medicines for the poor, sanitary disposal of bio-medical waste, vehicles and drivers for health visits must be looked into. Postponement of operations at GMC on account of paucity of water supply and electricity is a serious matter that needs rectification. Unavailability of specialists at GMC and District Hospitals during emergencies must be dealt with an iron hand. It is well known that GMC and DHS consultants who are presently paid over Rs.12 lakh salary a year switch off their mobiles after office hours, engage in private practice and are inaccessible to the junior Doctors who practically manage the entire medical care by themselves. The new Health Minister must seek details of calls attended by Senior Consultants and action taken at these Hospitals. The pathetic facilities for learning for students and teachers at GMC and the dirty canteens merit urgent overhaul. The Health Minister, himself a Teacher, must form a Task Force of experts to take stock of such shortcomings and rectify them periodically. Health care requires Team-work. To bring about unison in its provision, the “twins” separated since birth (the Health Services and GMC) are to be merged under a single Umbrella. The new Government ought to deliver on these issues instead of delivering another Medical College.
