A short visit to Goa’s premium institution Goa Medical College Hospital, a government hospital with over 1,400 beds handling nearly 2,000 patients a day tells the story of most other government hospitals in the State. It is now mostly crowded by migrants coming from the neighbouring states. A recent study has revealed that majority of the Goan population including the poor prefer a private hospital than government run hospitals not by choice but by compulsion.
The prestigious ‘Escola Medico Cirurgica da Goa’ was established in the year 1842 during the Portuguese rule. Later renamed as Goa Medical College & Hospital it is the oldest medical college in Asia which is now into shambles due to the negligence by the consecutive governments. It has been more famous for various scams than in delivering quality treatment for the patients. Not because of any inefficient and incompetent staff but for the mismanagement and due to the sheer negligence by the government.
Overcrowded wards, unclean surroundings and non-functioning equipments are almost synonymous with government hospitals but it has become the trade mark of GMC hospital with dust-filled floors, waste strewn all around the GMC complex. Unbearable stench tells the story of the unhygienic condition within and out of our prestigious institution. Waste is dumped in open bins with flies having a field day it.
Before penning this article, I was camping at the hospital in the cardiac ward beside my dying friend when I happened to enquire with some responsible sources about the condition of the hospital when I noticed the filth, water shortage and dirty linen. It was even more shocking with revelations that most of the time, there is water scarcity, the toilets are overflowing with human waste and stench is unbearable as was evident therein. It is even worst to know that many machines don’t work, many of the sophisticated equipments are not operated due to lack of trained personnel, doctors, nurses and other staff are not showing much interest at times due to the mismanagement of the whole institution.
It was also understood that political favouritism towards a selected staff has demoralised the motivation of other sincere, hardworking and dedicated staff. GMC hospital can boast of a huge fancy gate at the entrance but the affairs inside are not so fanciful.
The maintenance of the hospital should be done on regular basis and not only when VIPs or Ministers come to visit the hospital or to cut a ribbon. Our politicians or MLAs seldom take treatment at government hospitals or admitted there unless they are caught in a crime, arrested and taken for medical when they suddenly develop ‘Chest Pain” and get admitted in air-conditioned wards to escape being lodged in jail. Otherwise, they or their families prefer not to visit the poor patients who may be their voters now admitted in the hospital. One can observe at GMC hospital that several wards are overcrowded. To make things worse, people are deprived of proper drinking water facilities as there is no sign of water vending machines. One can notice poor people filling bottles from the taps in the toilets that too if they drip by luck.
A visit to the GMC hospital will also reveal more sorrowful state of affairs, to mention that the bathrooms are pathetic will be a severe understatement. Most of them don’t even have taps and there is no water inside the washrooms. Goa health minister needs to certainly take serious note of the things and happenings at GMC hospital with his men to work overtime to achieve acceptable and respectable standards.
The negligence by the government can be attributed to several reasons amongst one of them being that it is not a money spinning affair for the government. But it is the duty of the State to look after the health care of the populace. Recently in 2013, it was rocked with a scam of sending blood samples for testing to private laboratories of the choice of certain politicians. In 2015, it was rocked with another alleged scam of Rs 32 crore with the deliberate delay in tendering the supply of medicines to various government-run medical institutions to certain people with an objective to fit them in the supply exercise with an eye to divert commissions to their accounts. This even rocked the Goa Assembly but nothing came out of it later for the public knowledge. Even the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court took suo moto cognizance from the various media reports and action was demanded. Are our politicians afraid of anything? Whether Congress or BJP ruled Goa, the affairs of GMC hospital remained the same in a pathetic condition.
The government is also busy favoring and promoting unwanted projects through the back door by using the Investment Promotion Board to hurriedly approve those projects which otherwise would have not seen the daylight in Goa. It is in the name of creating infrastructure and jobs for our youth. The actual infrastructures for the common man are the basic amenities. Standard roads, public transport, footpaths, street lights, drainage system and clean drinking water lie in the pipeline albeit in a limbo.
And not to forget those departed and lying in the morgue of GMC for final burial, there is neither a not-so-good feeling for them in the morgue. It is often reported that the air-conditioning units are malfunctioning or not functioning at all. When the government does not care for the living, what can we expect from this government to care for the dead?
After a fire incident in the pharmacy area in the past, the government should have been on a war footing mission to check the condition of this premium health institution to avert any further untoward damage but the recent collapse of the wall of the teaching faculty unit only tells us that this government too will collapse like the wall itself before the next monsoon.
