Dear Fred, I am afraid that the efficacy of private profit oriented healthcare is the main reason why Goans are increasingly frequenting hospitals outside the state.
While it is true that in the early 70's coastal kannadigas and southern maharashtrains flocked to Goa ie GMC for treatment , Goans travelled even then to Mumbai for advanced treatment. Goa at that time had superior basic health (and education)services courtesy the Portuguese legacy while Karnataka and Maharashtra lacked even primary health centers. That changed after Karnataka and then Maharashtra.allowed private players into the education field and consequently into the health arena. In what appears to be an overkill karnataka now has atleast =two medical and one dental college in each district headquarters with half a dozen to a dozen in Bangalore alone. The result is that the patient is king , high tech wards are vacant and prices of open heart surgery and other specialised treatment going south. Needless to say centers of excellence have emerged in this low cost scenario. In contrast Goa has remained in a time warp. Crores continue to be spent on the monolith of public healthcare ,millions on the mediclaim to provide care for the undeserving. Witness the posh cars of patients parked outside the medical and dental colleges availing free CT scans and dental treatment. Check out the coronary patients in Belgaum and Bangalore treated free of cost on Mediclaim- most of them happen to be Badcars or tarvotis. Meanwhile GMC is systematically deprived of funds, its doctors underpaid, overworked and not motivated and its equipments and library outdated. It is not that the Government is not spending enough (the budgetary allocation in health and education is among the highest in India) but that it is reluctant to introduce user fees in its hospitals and screen mediclaim applicants. In this situation corporate hospitals find it difficult to thrive under the shadow of the banyan GMC tree. GMC on the other hand has detoriated to the status of a nursing home overwhelmed by the patients which should have been handled by the PHC and Asilios and Hospicio hospitals. Until Apollo Victor Hospital opened its doors hi tech medicine had virtually fled the state with the Goan patient following close behind!! Message: 11 Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:30:37 +0530 From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Goanet] Manipal, arogyacards, and Goa To: goanet@goanet.org Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain There's an advertisement in The Hindu (once of my favourite newspapers) or April 22, 2005, which shows Sunil Kambli of Goa, with his son Sahil. He's quoted saying: "I never knew how Manipal ArogyaCard could be of help, until it helped when my son fell ill". The efficacy of private, profit-oriented healthcare is another debate. Some hospitals are simply too costly, prescribe all kinds of superfluous treatment, while others are fairly efficient. That's beyond this debate. What is the subject here is the way in which patients from Goa are today seen as a market for hospitals outside the state (mainly in coastal Karnataka, Belgaum, Bangalore or elsewhere). Once, not too long ago, Goa had a superior health care system, compared to its neighbouring outlying areas. We looked down condescendingly on patients who came *here* for treatment. Now, the boot is on the other foot. Firstly, we need to take note of the changing situation. Secondly, we need to ask: how did we fall back? Was it, in part at least, because our state opted to go in for a contractor-fuelled plan of having a (near-giant) new Goa Medical College, while they don't even have the funds to take care of basic usables in the health-care process? Maybe someone with a better understanding could give us insights. FN -- ---------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | http://del.icio.us/fredericknoronha Saligao, Goa, India | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 ---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions | | | | Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages | | Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Goanet Digest, Vol 2, Issue 342 ************************************** Dr.Pascal & Sherryl Pinto PINTO DENTAL MultiDisciplinary Dental & Implant Clinic BRITESMILE Affiliate 315 Kamat Towers,EDC Plaza, Behind KTC Bus Terminus, Patto,Panaji.GOA Ph:5642066,2437398 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions | | | | Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages | | Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls | --------------------------------------------------------------------------