PERNEM: The construction of the new multispecialty Sub-District Hospital at Tuem was scheduled to be completed last December. However, with the work going at a slow pace, it is anyone’s guess when it would be completed. 

Presently, the Tuem Community Health Centre provides only basic treatment to patients from the entire Pernem taluka. Thought the Centre has full-time doctors, there is no fully equipped surgery room to conduct deliveries, no full-time X-Ray technician, paediatrician and anaesthetist. 

Consequently, people with serious ailments are either referred to the District Hospital at Mapusa or to Goa Medical College and Hospital, at Bambolim.

Therefore, the under construction sub-district hospital with advance facilities was conceptualised to alleviate the difficulties of Pernem residents. However, considering the slow pace of work, the people of Pernem taluka will have to wait for few more years for a multispecialty hospital.

Located behind the existing Community Health Centre, the new project, once ready, will house OPD, blood bank, CSSD area, casualty, canteen, pharmacy, entrance lobby (registration), staff changing area, day care ward, physiotherapy department, community services, service areas, pathology department and toilet blocks, on the ground floor. 

The first floor will house the male/female wards, dialysis, OT, ICU, delivery room, paediatric ward, maternity ward, NICU, waiting areas, service areas and toilet blocks. The basement will be for parking of ambulances, mortuary vans, cars and two-wheelers, wastewater chambers, a casualty ward, operation theatres, kitchen and toilets.

Commenting on the slow pace of work, a local Sneha Naik said, “No one seems to bother about the people of Pernem. The Community Health Centre cannot treat all kinds of ailments. And it is for this reason, the sub-district hospital is being built so that people are not forced to travel all the way to Mapusa or Bambolim.”

“This project will give major relief to people of Pernem. This project needs to be completed soon,” a local Sairaj Salgaonkar said.