If one had to look at the health problems afflicting the coastal belt of Salcete and other parts of the taluka, it would be easy to ascertain that the demand for better health services is sky rocketing and the supply is abysmal solely due to lack of overall infrastructure.
While the primary health centres (PHC) of Chinchinim and Curtorim cater to the villages of Salcete with the addition of Balli PHC that is just outside the taluka, Hospicio hospital and the urban health centre in Margao complete the main network for imparting health services in the taluka.
The situation is particularly critical in the coastal belt of Benaulim for the villages of Carmona, Orlim and Cavelossim. The three villages combined have a population that crosses 10,000 people and that is excluding the floating population living in the tourist villages.
The three villages are dependent on medical services on a single rural medical dispensary. Villagers are troubled by the few timings available to them and complain that the dispensary is not functioning properly except when the doctor visits to carry out the OPD treatment.
Due to shortage of staff, the dispensary is now open only twice a week on Tuesday and Friday and that too for just two hours from 2 pm to 4 pm.
Officials at the RMD have said that they have been operating with an acute shortage of staff and thus they had to curtail the timings and cited how it affects other functions of the RMD such as dispensing medicines.
Sources at the health department also spoke about how the staff was transferred to fill up vacancies at other places and they did not have enough staff including regular workers to keep the dispensary open all week.
However villagers said that the government ought to examine the issue and that the response time of 108 ambulances in the villagers are also slow and the RMD is not always available during emergencies such as road accidents
Incidentally in the past there was an option to open a sub health centre at the neighbouring Orlim panchayat ghar and the same had even been cleared by the Chinchinim primary health centre but it had to be dropped due to technical reasons. Panchayat officials say they have appealed to the health department for a sub-health centre that will be attached to the Chinchinim PHC.
Sarpanch Gaudencio Luis said the process of the setting up of a sub health centre had been initiated as there were plenty of demands from the 3,500 odd population in his village alone but now an anganwadi centre had opened up in the space allotted for the sub health centre.
Locals had raised the issue at gram sabhas and had pointed out a health centre in the village will be able to look after health-related exercises, such as fogging during the monsoon to prevent the spread of vector-borne diseases like malaria.
With no health centre in the village, the nearest PHC is at Chinchinim village, about 20km away, point out senior citizens. Given the poor local transport connectivity, it’s often an entire day’s effort just to get a check-up, they add.
Villagers add that the PHC, on most days, is crowded with patients, as it caters to several villages, and since it is also understaffed the experience is distressing.
There are similar issues elsewhere in Velim constituency where the sub health centres service in Velim and Ambelim are also facing a shortage of medical personnel, especially nurses and doctors for post-operative care.
The villages of Sao Jose de Areal and Dramapur comes under the Curtorim Primary Health Centre, while Velim comes under the Balli Primary Health Centre. The villages of Ambelim, Assolna, and Sarzora are attached to the Chinchinim Primary Health Centre. Healthcare officials at Balli Primary Health Centre said that OPD facilities are provided at the sub-health centre once a week while health workers are working on preventive medical care and immunisation programmes.
The villagers said that they prefer going to Hospicio Hospital as Balli PHC does not have the required medical facilities and are often referred to Hospicio Hospital. It is to be noted that that the Velim village panchayat had written to the health department seeking upgradation of the sub-health centre to a Rural Medical Dispensary to meet its medical requirements.
The villages of Sarzora and Chinchinim are better placed than the other villages as the Primary Health Centre is located nearby.
In Navelim, the under construction primary health centre may offer some respite to the constituency as it was currently dependent on the Curtorim primary health centre.
Currently the 12-bed Curtorim Primary Health Centre caters to around a lakh population spread across 11 villages in Salcete- right from Curtorim to Sao Jose de Areal in the east and Navelim and Dramapur-Sirlim on the west.
