Except for one pharmacy located at a remote place in Poinguinim, Canacona (Vaibhav Pharmacy) there are no pharmacies operating during the night in the taluka. This pharmacy is being operated by Vinayak who resides adjacent to the establishment. He keeps his shutters down in the night but promptly attends to the calls of night visitors in need of life saving drugs. However, his services are known only to people living in close vicinity.
In Loliem panchayat there are two community health centers run by the government under the Directorate of Health services and at most times, the doctors deputed here are assigned other duties, away from the clinic and the compounders give the ailing patients tablets that are not hazardous.
That apart, there are two private medical practitioners attending to patients and Dr Vilas Pawaskar is available at his three clinics all through the day, while Dr Anut Agrayanak disposes his time at his clinic at Outraband, Loliem from morning till afternoon.
There are many registered medical practitioners in Canacona and at Loliem there is only one allopathic doctor in the form of Dr Kalidas Aiya whose wife Dr Pushpa Aiya is a also a doctor, holding a BHMS degree and they practice at their residence. They are available at most of the times and attend to the needy.
There are many trained doctors from Canacona but they are practicing in cities as the patients visiting them cannot afford to pay the high cost of medicines and other sundry charges as most of them hail from the economically backward strata of the society.
Many prominent residents have been pleading with the concerned authorities to keep some pharmacies open during the night since the past few years but their pleas have not been addressed, while on the other hand the pharmacists say that they are willing if police security is given to them.
In times of distress and when the doctor prescribes medicines that are not available at his shelf, patients have to rush to Margao to purchase the drugs. The rich can afford this exercise but the poor are at the mercy of God.
All the pharmacies remain closed on Sundays. Due to this, most of the private medical practitioners don’t operate on Sundays as they keep a limited stock of drugs on their shelves.
“At night, the doctors at the Community Health Center ask to buy costly medicines from private pharmacies and at such times, the residents face a lot of hardships and problems,” said Puno Gaonkar, a social worker from Nuvem. He has asked the concerned authorities to look into the matter at the earliest.
The prominent residents of Canacona have demanded that the local MLA and Sports Minister, Ramesh Tawadkar should take an immediate initiative to provide basic facilities which have been lacking for many years, to the local residents here.
According to them, the basic facilities include medicines and doctors at the Community Health Center in Canacona (CHC), water, and electricity and life saving drugs.
Though the new Health Center building was constructed spending a huge amount, so far the government has failed to provide basic facilities like doctors, proper generator system, medicines and proper and sufficient number of dialysis machines in spite of the repeated requests and demands.
According to Santosh Gaonkar, ex-Chairperson of Canacona municipal Council, the people of Canacona constituency are economically poor and backward and cannot afford to buy expensive medicines from private pharmacies. The government therefore, should provide at least basic medicines at the
centre.
