The newly inducted State Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said Goa’s health sector including Goa Medical College (GMC) and 108 ambulances were in need of a major change including better systems and faster services.
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PANAJI
Speaking to media persons, the health minister who was given charge of the department on Tuesday said he had already held three meetings with officials from the Goa Medical College and the Directorate of Health Services to simplify the process.
“GMC requires new systems to be put in place including its management. Hospicio and Asilo hospitals also need to be streamlined. There are a lot of cases that can easily be treated at these hospitals but get referred to Goa Medical Collges. As a priority, I will work on sorting Goa Medical Collgesout,” he said.
GVK EMRI’s 108 emergency services that Rane was instrumental in bringing to the state was also in need for a change.
“Over a period of time, the 108 services had lost its efficiency and was in need of better ambulances as well as trained personnel,” the minister said.
“The entire system at 108 has to be put on track. There are certain reworkings of 108 that are required to be done and I’ve already started working on those. We have asked them to form a new management staff along with the Director of Health Services. I’ve already had two rounds of meetings to bring it to the way it was earlier,” said Rane.
10 new ambulances along with trained personnel to man the ambulances will also be brought into function by May 15.
The new ambulances were to be equipped with Advanced Life Saving (ALS) equipment including ventilators.
The personnel would also work under a hire and fire policy where the job was not going to be a permanent one as it required employees to be prepared for a high pressure job. The minister also called for the personnel to work overtime and to be more work efficient.
Responding to the ambulance service’s poor response time to accidents, Rane added that he planned to have all accident hotspots covered with a system of daily reporting of cases they handled.
“I’ve asked for a system to report everyday by email exactly how many patients and calls were attended to. If any call gets attended to by more than 15 to 20 minutes, I need to know the reason for the delay,” the minister said, adding further that a medical audit would be conducted every 15 days.
According to Rane, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had given him a free hand to deliver.
“Three rounds of
meetings have already taken place and I will give the presentation to the chief minister on Monday on steps I want to take,” Rane said
adding he would ask for a higher capital owing to rising costs and matching market salaries.
