It is not often that one has the opportunity of appreciating and eulogizing our government or any of its agencies or departments for something good done by them. And when such opportunity occasionally arises, I feel the need to use it as an incentive or encouragement to do still better, particularly because we live in a system where non-performance and inefficiency have taken deep roots, much to our pain and disgust.
The Super-specialty Cardiac Centre at the Goa Medical College has just completed a year of its successful and efficient functioning. Surely we need to feel happy and legitimately proud of the achievements of our compatriots in the GMC, who are rendering inexpensive yeoman service to the people of Goa. But their own sense of joy and satisfaction of having chosen to serve their own community in our very own medical institution is perhaps far greater. Health care is a major factor in the development of the State and hence the Goa Government and the GMC deserve to be congratulated for making such costly treatment available free or at minimum cost to the people.
The laudable services of Dr Shrish Borkar and his able Assistant Dr Jaganth Kolwalkar, cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons who have performed over 250 open heart surgeries and over 70 lung and thoracic operations at the GMC during the last nine months have already been referred to by me in these columns and elsewhere earlier. To these well known surgeons, we need to add another three reputed cardiologists, Dr Guruprasad Naik, the Chief of the Cardiology Unit, and the interventional cardiologists, Dr Manjunath Desai and his Assistant Dr Michelle Viegas, whose skilled services kindness and attention to the patients are also being commended by many.
Incidentally, I have had the privilege of knowing Dr Michelle from her student days at Fatima Convent H S Margao. An unassuming young lady, Michelle has had a brilliant academic record having secured first rank in Goa both in SSC and HSSC. She is the daughter of my good friend Rafael Viegas from Curtorim.
All these cardiologists and surgeons have been working effectively as a team at the GMC by providing relief to the patients from ailments that have become very common amongst us. They have commendably opted to put their services at the disposal of their own people surely by turning down better avenues and remunerations available to them in other parts of the country or even abroad. Their commitment to their land and to the noble profession they have embraced needs to be immensely appreciated and emulated by those in similar fields. Had they chosen to work elsewhere, Goans would have been deprived of their valuable services and many would have to forgo treatment because of the prohibitive rates prevailing for such ailments at private hospitals. Selfless gestures like these are indeed very rare. Our gratitude to them can only be expressed by a few words of appreciation and praise. Grateful hearts are their only reward. May God bless them all and their good work.
