By ASHOKKUMAR U DESAI | NT NETWORK
CANACONA: Successive governments have failed in providing adequate basic healthcare facilities at Canacona Community Health Centre particularly to the economically poor section of society.
The Canacona and Poinguinnim MLAs, Mr Vijay Pai Khot and Mr Ramesh Tawadkar along with the Canacona Health Welfare Committee and Canacona Journalist Association have threatened to stage rasta roko on June 28 to protest against shortage of adequate staff at the Canacona Community Health Centre. Besides other issues, the Canacona Health Welfare Committee and the above named MLAs are also unhappy with the lack of sanitation facilities.
Mr Khot and Mr Tawadkar have on a number of occasions requested the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat and Health Minister, Mr Vishwajit Rane to look into the issues plaguing the centre but the requests have fallen on deaf ears.
Mr Tawadkar disclosed that over seventy per cent people in Canacona taluka are economically backward and cannot afford to go to private hospitals. He further said that the joy that arose among the people when a dialysis unit was installed in Canacona some four years back was short-lived as it is not fully functional.
However, Dr Venkatesh R the in-charge of the dialysis units at Canacona CHC and Margao Hospicio said that Goa is the only state where patients get Rs 1.80 lakh per year for conducting dialysis. "As per the requirement of the patients, dialysis is performed here and we have the best facilities," he claimed.
Dr Venkatesh further said that all together there are about 27 dialysis patients, depending on dialysis, for the day-to-day survival at Canacona, about 75 per cent are depending on the government dialysis units at CHC Canacona, Hospicio Margao and the GMC Bambolim and the rest 25 per cent are using the Private Hospital’s Mediclaim facility for dialysis.
Dr Venkatesh further said that the state government remits 1.80 lakh per annum to the concerned private hospital for every patient.
Presently Canacona CHC cannot accommodate all the patients due to unavailability of uninterrupted electricity, blood testing for kidney failures and an intensive care unit (ICU), added Dr Venkatesh. He disclosed that in order to meet the health needs of poor patients in Canacona, the centre carries out at least 2 to 3 dialysis sessions daily to avoid any mortality. He added that at Hospicio, 25 to 30 dialysis sessions are carried out daily.
"One will be surprised to see the ultra-modern and most advanced department of dialysis with 12 bedded dialysis machines at Hospicio Hospital and shortly a Kidney Intensive Care Unit (KICU) will be started," Dr Venkatesh added.
Ms Colaco, a sixty-year-old woman kidney patient from Loliem-Polem said that she is content with timely treatment available at the centre. She further said that doctors and other staff at the centre are very good but facilities are lacking.
Doctors have attributed kidney ailments to various factors, but the government has failed to pinpoint the reasons behind the highest rate of kidney failures in the taluka for the last ten to fifteen years, said Mr Manoj Naik Gaonkar, a teacher from Shri Mallikarjun High School, Char-Rasta.
However, during a medical camp, Dr Anup Ramani, a urologist from Mumbai Lilawati Hospital said that consuming large quantities of dry fruits, papads, pickles and soft drinks could be one of the reasons for kidney ailments.
One out of every 10 people in Goa suffers from kidney disease even as the state is yet to come to some conclusion on the causes of renal failures in Canacona taluka from where comes the highest number of patients many of whom have succumbed to the disease, said Mr Rama G Desai, a social worker from Bhikar-wada.
Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times,’ most of the residents of Cotigao, Agonda and Khola village panchayats said that though the number of patients at the centre has increased, the authorities concerned have not increased the medical quota. Hence most of the patients have to purchase medicines from private drug stores thus making health-care expensive.
