The manner in which the Goa government is conducting itself after literally turning the taps off in the GMC, is setting new standards in insensitivity. Here we have very sick patients and their relatives struggling to get water to carry out the most basic of functions like brushing their teeth and washing their faces, while the Health and the PWD departments are looking at each other to find a convenient spot to place the blame for GMC’s water crisis.
From the time the information that the water crisis in the GMC reached an alarming level, post which there was patient outrage, followed by criticism in the social media, the various government departments have gone into an ostrich mode i.e bury their heads in the sand and pretend that the water crisis is imaginary. During the course of researching on a full page focus on the issue, the Herald reporter asked the Dean of GMC how he was planning to restore normal supply back to the hospital to meet the needs of patients. His response was almost unbelievable. He said ‘Is there a water crisis. I need to speak to the Superintendent, since I do not look after day to day affairs”.
This reply is in itself not shocking. It is a true and honest reflection that neither the GMC nor the Health department is run like a service. From the office of the minister to the smallest of the public health care centers, those who take administrative decisions, in the health department have the same professional DNA as those in any other department. It is all about the right posting, consistent comfort levels, regular increments and using political connections. We need to reiterate that many doctors including very senior ones, nurses, ward boys and others who are quiet soldiers and have given dedicated service to the state by their selfless acts. They should not get tainted by this criticism. They are the ones who keep the flag flying high in their hands, even if they have chains on their feet. They are as much as victims of their own system, as the patients and their relatives are.
Now going back to the water crisis at hand, the response has been tardy and lazy. A Health Minister cannot react to a water crisis in his main government facility with a casual remark that the PWD is short on distribution of adequate water. The PWD hit back saying they are supplying 1000 cubic meters daily as against the GMC’s requirement of 700- odd cubic meters daily.
Let us step back and absorb what is going on. Here are two premier departments of the government actually trading charges through the media on who should be accountable for the acute suffering of patients in the GMC, without a single meeting being called to tackle the problem on a war footing. There are three stakeholders here with the fourth being the poor patient himself. If we leave him out of the problem solving equation, the three agencies involved are the Health department, the PWD and the ubiquitous GSIDC which currently looks after the maintenance of GMC. It is the PWD which supplies water on behalf of the GSIDC for GMC. It is obvious to ask why an emergency meeting hasn’t been called, a task force set up and the eater supply restored after looking into where the problem lies. Rather than an ugly public spat, which is what it has become after Herald has started asking each department questions, each of these agencies should have seen this as a joint responsibility, put together a ream with shared responsibilities and kept the whole exercise transparent.
However, the lead in this case had to be taken by the Health Minister since the cause of action lies very much in his realm. Instead what Mr D’Souza is doing is playing blame and run game. This will not bring GMC’s water supply back.
Finally, this will not be complete without drawing attention to one more basic. Private sector health care is not always an improvement. There are horror stories on unscrupulousness emanating from posh private nursing homes and hospitals. Therefore this is not a pitch against GMC and pitch for private care. It is a non-negotiable call for action to be sensitive towards the needs of even the non-paying patient because it’s the duty of the state to nurse them back to health. And while doctors, nurses and Heads of department’s are doing just that, their political bosses who have neither heard of the Hippocratic oath, nor follow the oath which they swear to serve by, when coming to power, are not aware of any such duty.
