JULIO D’SILVA
MARGAO:The new District Hospital called Hospicio will be ready only by September end and the shifting of the old Hospicio to the new one will be done in a phased manner
Margao MLA Digambar Kamat who is the chairman of the Public Undertakings Committee has taken a keen interest in the progress of the new hospital since it is the only project undertaken by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation that has taken more than 10 years to complete and the Comptroller and Auditor General has taken note of it.
“GSIDC has told us that the building will be complete in all respects by June 30 but we have asked them to inform us when the first floor will be ready, so that we can inspect the progress and check for ourselves whether the building will be ready when they say it will be,” said Digambar.
Once the hospital premises are handed over to the Health Department, it will need three months to get the hospital going and hence the hospital will be ready only at the end of September, he disclosed.
The Hospicio staff is eagerly waiting for the shift having prepared all the necessary plans.
Medical Superintendent Dr Ira Almeida said her team is ready to shift to the new premises as soon as it is handed over to them and revealed the elaborate plan prepared by them where the first to shift will be the day services.
The central sterilization services departments along with the laboratory, laundry, district early intervention centre for children, radiology department especially the MRI section and the mortuary will be the first to shift.
The clinical services will be the second to shift to the new premises which will include the para-clinical and procedures that can be completed in a day. “The patients will remain at the old Hospicio and will be shifted only in the third phase,” said Dr. Ira adding that the medicine department will probably be the first to shift.
In the third phase the operation theatre services will be shifted along with the kitchen services as food can be provided to the patients in the new premises from the present premises.
Furthermore, as the laboratory equipment will have to be calibrated all over again, initially some testing services will be outsourced like the night testing of blood counts and alcohol counts will be referred to the Ponda hospital till the laboratory at new Hospicio is completely functional.
Dr Ira said the new hospital will also need some permissions like from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the Goa State Pollution Control Board, Fire Services; and the ultrasound equipment will have to be licensed under the Pre Conception Pre Natal Diagnostic Technique Act.
