SURAJ NANDREKAR
PANJIM: For the last five months, one of Asia’s oldest medical college and hospitals – the Goa Medical College – has been operating illegally without consent from the authorities.
Shocking but true, GMC has failed to renew its consent to operate under the Air and Water Acts from the Goa State Pollution Control Board. The consent had expired on September 23, 2016. The consent under Air, Water Acts and authorisation is mandatory under the Hazardous Waste Rules, said a GSPCB official.
Inquiries also revealed that for the last five months GMC has made no efforts to get the consent from GSPCB.
Requesting anonymity, a GSPCB official confirmed that the consent expired on September 23, 2016 and that GMC so far has made no application to renew the same. Asked what action can be taken if GMC fails to apply for consent, the official said, “In normal cases we would wait for some time and act which could also mean closure of unit under the prescribed rules. However, since GMC being a big unit catering to thousands of patients closure
would have a major effect they would be given more time for the hospital to apply.” He added that they are nonetheless preparing to issue GMC a show cause notice.
When contacted the GMC Dean Dr Pradeep Naik said he was in Delhi for some work and that Herald should contact the Medical Superintendent who handles the matter. “I have no idea. Please contact the MS, who handles the matter,” he said in a telephonic conversation. However, repeated calls to the Medical Superintendent proved futile.
Goa Medical College was built when Goa was a Portuguese colony in 1842 as the Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de (Nova) Goa (Medical-Surgical School of [new] Goa).
It is one of the oldest medical colleges in Asia, the only other exceptions being the French founded JIPMER (formerly Ecole de Médicine de Pondichérry) in 1823 and the British-founded Calcutta Medical College in 1835.
