foundation stone laid for district hospital in Margao
Also to house cardiac, cancer unit
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, DEC 30
Call it a New Year gift for the people of South Goa, the government on Tuesday laid the foundation stone for the 556-bedded district hospital, including a 50-bedded Cancer unit and a 100 bedded super specialty Cardiac Centre of Excellence in Margao.
The super specialty unit is proposed to be set up on Public Private Partnership basis and will have three operation theatres and an ICU unit.
Estimated to cost a whopping Rs 92.66 crore, work on the ground-plus five storey state-of-the-art hospital is expected to be completed within 36 months. The project will be executed by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC). The hospital includes ancillary buildings such as a Cancer unit, residential quarters and yatri niwas.
The hospital will have a provision for almost all facilities, including dental, TB, dialysis, orthopedics, ophthalmic, ENT, ICU etc.
The ground floor will house all diagnostic services, OPDs, doctors and staff, while the second floor will have facilities such as NICU, surgical, medicine, Day Care ENT etc. The third floor is exclusively meant for female wards such as gynaecology, surgical medicine and day care.
The foundation stone was laid at an impressive ceremony at the hands of Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat, Speaker Praptasing Rane, Health Minister, Vishwajit Rane, PWD Minister Churchill Alemao, other ministers, MPs and other dignitaries.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat said that his government is committed to take health facilities to the door steps of the people.
Saying that Goa is well managed state on the health front, Kamat said the state has taken new initiatives to improve the facilities by introducing the 108 ambulances and mobile health clinics. In the pipeline are mobile vans which will go to the villages to check women for breast cancer. He appealed to the doctors and staff to put in their wholehearted efforts to provide the best of treatment to the patients.
Health Minister, Vishwajit Rane said the district hospital project will be dream come true for Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat and exuded confidence that the people of Goa will receive excellent health facilities from this ultra-modern hospital.
He said the super specialty hospital under PPP model will be designed to perform all treatment frequently on collecting revenue and pass on the share to the main hospital for its running and operational cost to extent possible.
In his address, PWD Minister, Churchill Alemao emphasized the need to maintain the government hospitals, saying it is not sufficient to build hospital, but maintain them too.
He urged the government to recruit additional staff, including supervisors and sweepers, for the maintenance of hospital buildings
South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha suggested that the new hospital have a provision for dental facility, saying people of South Goa are put to great hardships for want of facility in Margao. He also called for strengthening the cancer diagnosis and treatment facility.
