FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024
From bad to worse
Hospitals are so ill-equipped that there are not only shortages of vaccines, oxygen, ventilators, beds, medical staff overworked, but also not equipped to tackle a fire which also kills doctors and patients! The Centre’s election machinery which had the CM and HM spend almost every alternate day in huge rallies and road shows for almost a month, ignoring Covid and our health infrustructure, using all the resources of money and government machinery/facilities to win elections, is out of their depth now in tackling this major problem efficiently in public interest.
Ask the hapless patients running from pillar to post and helplessly watch their loved ones dying and trying to cremate/bury them with dignity! Why cannot the Centre control and distribute equitably/rush supplies where needed and require the Courts directions to pull up their socks and act with dispatch? Why not free vaccinations for everyone with no confusion of public/private, no different procedures and prices so speed is the only criteria to get things done where needed. Ridiculous wastage of time politicking like State crying shortage and Centre says there is no shortage! The PM CARES fund and all funds must go with priority to fix this very serious problem for this is a matter of life and death for which they have to take the major responsibility! All other plans can wait and traditions/religious activities being done for ages just cannot continue now at our own peril?
It is a shame that CEO of CII has to take shelter in UK at this criticle juncture due vested interests wanting priority at any cost, like VIPs are so used to!
John Eric Gomes, Porvorim
Oxygen manufacturing unit at Govt Hospital
There has been an unprecedented demand for medical oxygen in the state as the government hospitals are flooded with Covid-19 patients, many of them in a critical stage. Though the government has been assuring that there is sufficient supply of oxygen in the state, the ground reality seems quite to the contrary. This has led to a large number of deaths with Goa registering a record number of 52 deaths in a single day.
It is true that no one foresaw the tragedy that would befall Goans. However things need to show improvement in future as far as oxygen supply is concerned. Oxygen is vital for the survival of critical patients. Any amount of sophistication of the hospital is of little use if there is no adequate supply of medical oxygen. It is prudent for Government hospitals to have their own oxygen manufacturing unit. One can never for sure as to how long this virus will be around. We need to be future ready.
At least now the government needs to make provision of an oxygen manufacturing unit at every government hospital to cater to it’s needs. In this context it is learnt that the government has decided to set up an Oxygen manufacturing plant at the South District Hospital in order to meet the future medical oxygen need. Such a plant needs to come up at other government hospitals on a war footing. This way government hospitals will not be dependent on the companies supplying oxygen.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Oxygen supply
It is distressing to note that even a tiny state like Goa is finding it difficult to get adequate oxygen supply for patients. Oxygen is being rationed all across India and though there is aid in the form of oxygen concentrators and generators flowing in we just can't seem to get our logistics right.
Oxygen getting over in the middle of the night is proving to be a nightmare for doctors and patients alike since replacement cylinders take almost three hours to be delivered by agencies; imagine the kind of anxiety everyone has to go through in the interregnum. Add to that the non-availability of beds, with critical patients being attended to on floors and trolleys and you have a recipe for disaster.
Each doctor has an inhuman case load of @ 50 patients and on top of that they have to fend off angry relatives incase a fatality occurs.
Another aspect which doesn't make the doctor's life any easier is the VIP culture, many a time they have to leave a serious patient's bedside to attend to a VIP patient (who may be just having a slight cold) being wheeled in. It's damned if they do and damned if they don't.
CCTV cameras in all wards supplemented by security guards should be provided to overworked doctors so that they can atleast do their duties without looking over their backs .Most of all the government should work 24×7 to install oxygen plants at every medical facility, the clock is ticking.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Govt's incompetence exposed
The Covid-19 second wave resurgence is a deadly attack. The crematoriums and graveyards are overflowing with bodies. The situation has turned so dreadful that 40-member nations of the international fraternity has come out with the offer to aid India in order to bail it out of the crisis. The COVID pandemic has simply exposed, yet again, the lack of administrative foresightedness and policy bankruptcy of the present regime. Even several experts had warned that India was facing the threat of a second wave.
Since the onslaught of the coronavirus 2020, while the rest of the world has gone into fighting mode, BJP was busy capturing power in states by destabilising elected governments and evolving underhanded strategies to win elections.
The EC is an autonomous constitutional body and is expected to work independently. But the manner in which the EC has been functioning since the appointment of former CEC Sunil Arora at its helm in 2017, has given rise to the suspicion that it has turned into the B team of the BJP. And he is allegedly being awarded the job of Governor of Goa for helping his political masters.
Even the division bench of Madras High Court’s observations have exposed the denigration of the democratic and constitutional institutions in the country. The PM CARES Fund, which was set up to fight COVID, is yet to reveal how it has spent the thousands of crores of rupees it has received in donations for its mission.
K.G.Vilop, Chodan
May God protect our priests
In the last 2 days two of our priests died from the deadly virus. All across India the Catholic Church has lost so many priests and religious. On April 17 in the state of Gujarat 5 priests lost their lives to this evil virus.
Just as the doctors, nurses and other Frontline medical staff are toiling day and night to save lives, so also our Catholic priests administer the Sacraments, perform last rites etc, while our sisters and religious are continuously toiling day and night to serve the sick, the aged, orphans and all those entrusted to their care. It is very sad to see so many priests and nuns succumbing to the virus while they serve God through their fellow men.
As we pray the Rosary with our families imploring God to save us from this ordeal, let us in a special way pray for our priests and religious asking God to protect them from the deadly virus.
Allwyn N.D'Souza, Pri. Almir Seva Kendr, Saligao
