This was in 2015, but there was little that was done since then to rein in the doctors who were undertaking research projects and doing clinical trials with no benefit to the institution. So Herald scratched into the surface of the GMC again, and discovered that little has changed in the past four years.
So Herald dug deeper. Sifting through piles of documents, co-relating them with others that are uploaded on various websites, speaking to doctors for technical clarifications, and reconfirming that what appears prima facie a dodge indeed extends much wider. Herald discovered that there was a major story in what is occuring in the sanitised corridors of the premier medical college and hospital of the State.
Here, in this college and hospital, atop the Bambolim hill where doctors began their career with lofty ideals, are a few who have not just bent the rules, but have broken them to obtain grants for clinical trials and research work through Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and carried out the work in government hospitals, though the funding never went to the government coffers. What they did was hide the fact from the government that there was foreign funding involved. That money should have come to the government – to the GMC – but instead went to the accounts of certain NGOs.
This is not just an eyebrow-raising revelation. These are doctors who are expected to go by the rulebook and cure patients who come to them. Herald has once again exposed the scam that never abated. After 2015, when there was no action by the authorities, it was continued by some doctors of the Goa Medical College. With this exposé, Herald now awaits that the authorities will take it up and for starters initiate an inquiry, and then take it to the logical conclusion. There has to be closure to this, and the inquiry cannot be one that will gloss over the irregularities and hush up the matter. People forget, like they did the 2015 revelation, but then not everybody has the same memory failure.
The lives of patients are at risk, when they are given experimental drugs. Patients cannot be used as guinea pigs for the advancement of certain medical practitioners. They go to the hospital seeking a cure, trusting that they will be given the best treatment. If they are to be subjects of a trial drug or of any other study, they have to be told about this, and their consent has to be recorded. When experiments are conducted without the consent of the patient, then it is a major breach of all regulations. The doctors involved in such a project have no defence.
The example presented is merely to illustrate the manner in which NGOs have been able to gain research funds. There are more cases, and Herald will be investigating these too. The bottom line is that the funds should have come to the Goa Medical College and Hospital, they did not. Look at the figures in the reports on page 1 and in our Review section, and then imagine how much Goa Medical College and Hospital could have benefited from the funding. And therein lies the story.
