PANJIM: The number of patients visiting the OPDs of the Department of Urology of Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) has increased four-fold during the nine years since it was established in April 2008.
A higher number of patients being treated would mean good news for the hospital, however, on the other side it speaks of an increase in the ailing population. Speaking to Herald, Honorary Consultant to Urology Department, Dr Madhumohan Prabhudesai, acknowledged that the State has seen a gradual increase in the number of kidney related diseases, especially ailments including kidney stones. The major cause he points out is the change in dietary habits.
He said, “There is increased salt intake in food, particularly the packed food or anything that has high salt intake. Second is more consumption of red meat or shell fish or prawns. And third very important thing is people drink less water.”
GMC’s Urology department attended to 5260 patients in its OPD and treated 483 patients in its wards and performed 401 surgeries the first year. Within a span of eight years the department’s work load has increased fourfold and in 2016, the department attended to 21,565 OPD patients and treated 3,473 patients in the ward and performed 1710 surgeries.
Until April this year, the department has already attended to more than 6400 patients in the OPD and treated 832 patients in the ward and has conducted 557 surgeries successfully.
The total number of patients attended in the OPD has crossed 1.46 lakh and more than 23,000 patents have been treated in the wards with more than 11,000 surgeries conducted over a period of nine years.
The foundations of the department were laid in 12 beds and five doctors under the leadership of Dr Prabhudesai. Currently, on the verge of being one of the superspeciality teaching departments of the GMC, the Urology department has a strength of 18 doctors including senior and junior residents apart from three eminent visiting doctors, who conduct workshops and conferences apart from providing their medical services.
“GMC has full-fledged infrastructure as well as personnel. We have now dedicated two wards of around 50 beds for the department and two operation theatres dedicated to the Urology department in the week. Along with the increase in the number of patients, simultaneously we have been able to increase the infrastructure too,” he added.
