Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has stated that the team of expert doctors who
had been flown all the way from Delhi to check Ayush Minister Shripad Naik
have also examined those COVID positive MLAs. Why could the Goa Government
not request these doctors to also check other patients who are battling the
virus at our COVID hospitals? Is this because our citizens, the taxpayers
that pay for these unfair immoral privileges of the few are treated as
second class citizens?
Is the life of the politicians any more important than that of the common
man? Every COVID patient in the State has a right to get the best medical
care like anyone else. Will the Goa Government fly in doctors from Delhi to
examine our poor patients or is this only the privilege of the Politicians.
There is an African idiom that says if a man does not eat at home, he may
never give his wife enough money to cook a good pot of soup. This might
just be true when applied to our politicians seeking medical help from
anywhere and from anyone instead of relying solely on our own doctors like
the rest of the hard working taxpayers are forced to. This proves that our
health systems are in a depressing condition and cannot be relied on. If
law makers who have the power to enhance our medical systems do not have
faith in our healthcare, then why should the taxpayer? On the contrary,
taxpayers will feel cheated that they are treated as second class citizens
and are left with a second rate health system, not getting value for money
and that their hard earned taxes have been wasted.
While the cash rich politicians and their families get unlimited free
medical care at private hospitals, the common man has to borrow money by
pawning their jewellery and property with a hope that the patient will
survive. Medical tourism among Goa’s elite politicians is a big cause for
concern because they are responsible for the development of proper health
care for all citizens. Over recent years, this practice of politicians
going abroad or importing medical expertise from outside the state has
become the norm. The reasons for exercising this choice are obvious. They
lack confidence in the health systems they oversee, and because they can
afford this superior level of health care because their huge expenses are
paid for by the taxpayers, the very people that are forced to accept an
inferior level of care.
We all saw how our cash strapped State squandered those crores on the
medical treatment of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar though he was
terminally ill. The irony is that even a day before his death while we all
knew the factual position, the Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had the
audacity of misleading us that all the parameters of Manohar Parrikar were
fine. Sir Winston Churchill opined that healthy citizens are a nation’s
greatest asset. Time our Government took his advice seriously and made the
health of our citizens the top priority.
The time has come that the Government should ensure that the level of
medical care is the same for every citizen. Not a paisa more nor a paisa
less. This may also see radical improvement of health care in government
hospitals. All the political parties need to come to a consensus on this.
Even if there needs to be a public agitation towards ensuring this, so be
it. Good Health care for all even the poorest of the poor should be out
primary focus. What’s good for the goose must be good for the gander.
Equality for all is anyway in the Preamble of our Constitution of India.
However, if the taxpayers continue to pay for the medical tourism of Goa’s
politicians, the result will be that they will have little or no motivation
to change the status quo and this equality will always be a pipe dream.
Aires Rodrigues
Advocate High Court
C/G-2, Shopping Complex
Ribandar Retreat,
Ribandar – Goa – 403006
Mobile No: 9822684372
Office Tel No: (0832) 2444012
Email: airesrodrigu...@gmail.com
Or
airesrodrig...@yahoo.com
You can also reach me on
Facebook.com/ AiresRodrigues
Twitter@rodrigues_aires
www.airesrodrigues.com
