MARGAO: The sudden suspension of the only Medical Officer of the Forensics Department at Hospicio hospital, for reportedly highlighting the staff crunch and refusing to conduct post mortems, has only worsened the situation at the hospital.
Yet another problem arose at Hospicio on Saturday after there was no one to conduct a post-mortem on a body following a fatal accident. Matters are set to get worse as arrangements are reportedly being made for a visiting doctor from GMC every week. But this will happen only after Wednesday given the holiday in the beginning of the week.
Herald had highlighted the plight of the Forensics Section of the Hospicio and how there was staff crunch at the morgue and how the Medical Officer was not even a Medico Legal Officer but was pushed to the limits of conducting over 210 post mortems in seven months.
The doctor was suspended nine days after the Herald report hinting that the order may be to silence persons raising issues at Hospicio.
When contacted, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, said, “She could not refuse work but if it is a case of victimisation then I will look into the matter immediately.”
Speaking on staff crunch, the Minister Health said, “There was a plan of restructuring the Hospicio staff, administrative, labour, nurses and medical officers too. This has sadly got halted due to the ban on recruitment by the government and will only be executed after the code of conduct is lifted.”
When contacted, Medical Superintendent Dr Ira Almeida said, “She has been suspended for refusing to conduct post mortems. She was asked for justification to her letter to the Health Department for need of staff at the forensic section. She was asked to continue to do work as she was doing earlier.”
Medical Officer Svitlana Gomes had written to the Health Department regarding the overload of work at Hospicio. With the suspension of the only doctor, the Health Department now plans to send a doctor to Hospicio every week to conduct post mortems.
GMC, which looks after 11 North Goa police stations, has 10 to 12 Medical Officers and Medico Legal Officers at the morgue and equal number of support staff. Compared to GMC, Hospicio has 16 police stations under its jurisdiction in the South with only one doctor to handle the morgue and forensic department.
