Team Herald
Margao: The caravan to and from Hospicio is on the move again. The entire general operations of the South District hospital will be moved back to the old Hospicio building, with the new South Goa District Hospital going to be a dedicated hospital to treat Coronavirus patients
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The move of shifting back the entire operations of Hospicio to the old building will not be without its fair share of problems. The idea to move all departments of the old Hospicio hospital to the new district hospital was to stop crowding.
The team at the New District Hospital is however confident that there won’t be a problem and that the containment of Covid-19 pandemic is a priority now.
The Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation officials have been camping in the New District Hospital for several days. According to the top officials, they are ready and the first Covid-19 patient can be shifted to the new 250-bedded COVID hospital from Friday.
There are 566 oxygen panels at the two floors of the New District Hospital which can provide for 566 beds capacity if utilised to its fullest. However, after the entire study of available resources at the New District Hospital can have 200 beds for starters as a Covid-19 hospital. The District Hospital Covid-19 facility will handle Mildly Symptomatic patients.
The General Manager of GSIDC, Jude Carvalho said, “We can take the first patient from Friday”. When asked regarding the beds and other important equipment he said, “it is under the purview of Director of Health Services.”
The Medical Superintendent of Hospicio, Dr Deepa Correia told Herald, “The bed counts can be done only after we shift all the operations. We hadn’t defined the bed count of the New District Hospital but the plan is to make it a 250-bedded Covid-19 Hospital.”
However, there can be no denying that the operations of the age-old Hospicio not to speak of the strain on health professionals has been affected.
Shifted urgently in the middle of rains to New District Hospital to avoid crowding the Hospicio operation will now be completely shifted to an old building in Margao town. The underlying problems of the Hospicio and its operations can’t be ignored.
Already six out of eight helpers and staff of the Casualty ward are COVID positive.
