Goanet next meets in Goa: January 7, 4 pm (meeting point: Kala Academy canteen). Goanet founder Herman Carneiro will be there. See you there! ------------------------------
Govt moots public health endowment trust BY HERALD REPORTER http://www.oherald.com PANJIM, JAN 3 The government has mooted the idea of having a 'Public Health Endowment Trust' where Goan expats could give funds to the public health sector -- to be channelised according to the wishes of the donors. At the session on health care held at the Gomant Vishwa Sammelan at Kala Academy on Saturday, the government threw open for discussion with the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Non-Resident Goans (NRGs) the idea of an endowment trust or foundation. This was part of a session where various government officials and Non governmental organizations placed before the gathering the present standing of their respective organizations and stated where they would require the help of the overseas Goans. Dr V G Dhume, the Dean of the Goa Medical College, said that all over the world, institutions are turning towards endowment. On behalf of the task force for health set up for the conference, he has suggested the formation of an endowment trust or foundation. The envisaged foundation would be a registered body, which would have on its panel people from various professions and fields, be they doctors, academicians, social workers etc and would work in a transparent manner. The funds would be channelised according to the wishes of the donors. The types of funds envisaged by the task force would be the corpus fund - for maintenance, grants - for teaching and research, endowment - for long terms projects and scholarships - for study projects. Participating in the discussion later, the dean said "There are approximately 2200 ex-students (of the GMC) spread all over the world and it is perhaps time that they contribute to their alma mater in some way or the other like IITians", said Dr Dhume, Dean of GMC. Giving the background on the GMC, he said that the total bed strength at the GMC is 1100. In the year 2003, there were 3,44,772 OPD patients, admissions were 39,054, deliveries were 3,862 and 14,718 operations carried out, he said. Dr Dhume said that the GMC has received a proposal for the establishment of a clinical centre for Excellence from Ranbaxy, which is presently being studied. D Mukherjee, health secretary added that this trust would have to be structured by the NRGs and local Goans. The Secretary told the gathering of NRIs and NRGs that the government would want help in creating alumni associations all over the world. Replying to queries she said that the need for improved trauma services has been emphatically recognised by the government, and that the government was working on it, and in fact, there has already been a certain degree of upgradation. She said in view of the fact that health care goes hand in hand with other conditions in the State, the government is putting in place a strategy involving teams from various departments which would look at remedial situations. Road infrastructure, water supply and sewerage are all being looked at, she said, adding that the Government of India has also taken an interest in the road situation. She said that Goa has to make a transition from providing basic health care to all to providing quality and affordable health care to its citizens in terms of its evolving needs. She said that though today Goa is one of the best states in India in terms of health related performance indicators, it has to do better. Basic health care is available to the maximum number of people, and stress is laid on preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative health care. Giving statistics, she said that the infant mortality rate per 1000 live births is 14, against the national rate of 66. Life expectancy at birth has gone up, there has been no case of polio in Goa in the last 3 years and 91 per cent of the births have taken place in a medical facility. Goa is also the only state in India to have implemented the mediclaim scheme, she claimed. However, Goa has certain challenges ahead of it - there is an increase in the incidence of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and renal problems. There are issues of mental health arising from changing life styles and polytrauma due to road accidents. There is also an increase in the incidence of cancer, and HIV-AIDS she said. The Secretary felt that Goa has also to take into account care for the elderly, having a population of 130,000 elders. Aging building infrastructure in the health sector is also another problem. One of the goals for Goa, said Ms Mukherjee was to improve the present level of achievement in the health sector. Affordable, quality health care services in collaboration with the private sector should also be provided. Dr R Tamba, state epidemiologist said that while the Directorate of health services had certain strengths such as the immunization programme and the antenatal care, there were also several weaknesses. Some of these were the age old structures, the outdated machines, faulty work culture where there is complacency in the government service, urban bias where very few doctors are ready to work in rural areas, he said. Some of the expectations from the future he said, were technological advancement, optimization of services, modernisation of infrastructure, reaching the unreached and sharing of technology with parties abroad. Goa's dream is to have improved hospital and community health care with specialised modern equipment, effluent treatment plants, gardens etc, he said. A state public health laboratory with facilities for pathology, microbiology and other areas, epidemiological surveys and research projects alcohol related research and services all have to he hoped for, he said. Water quality and sanitary monitoring wing at the DHS with an attached laboratory, a cell for the study of pollution and its control taking into consideration mines and factories, are required. He said that Goa needs a school for training, retraining and refresher training for personnel at all levels, with libraries and audio visual facilities. In addition, incentives should be given to doctors reporting deadly diseases leading to their control as well as to those practicing in villages, he said. The not too long ago SARS incident in Goa pointed out the need for an isolation hospital cum research laboratory for communicable diseases such as rabies, SARS etc, he said. Mobile dispensaries which would cater to unreached pockets like slums, labour camps, remote areas were also needed, he added. Dr Tamba told the NRIs and NRGs present that they could help by ‘adopting’ a health centre and donating equipment/ vehicles, contributing to funds, providing technical expertise and donating funds to name a centre after their kin. Dr Shekhar Salkar, speaking on "winds of change", pointing out the weaknesses of the health scenario in Goa said that the medical professional availability at the sub centres is not satisfactory. The four talukas of Sattari, Pernem, Sanguem and Canacona lack proper secondary treatment centres. Besides this there is a lack of tertiary care centres. There is an insufficient patient load to sustain the capital intensive projects in the private sector, he found. Dr Salkar said that there was a need to develop a fully operational state of the art super speciality centres of excellence for urology, pediatrics, advanced dental treatment, cosmetic surgery, etc. He said that there should be improvement of the sub centres with the help of local private practitioners in all disciplines, and improvement of the community health centres with the help of corporate hospitals. There is a need to develop primary trauma care treatments at the primary health centres, he said, adding that the amputation rate at the GMC has decreased after starting the primary trauma care units. He added that there is also a need to have mobile cardiac ambulances with paramedics, especially in view of the fact that the death rate due to heart problems is very high. Dr Salkar felt that the government should offer provision for land and buildings, make provisions for infrastructure facilities of electricity, waste, disposal of medical waste etc. There should also be improvement in the mediclaim facilities and private health insurance, and improvement in sanitation and water quality. He said that the expectations from the non resident Goans, were for specialised qualified personnel for state of the art super speciality treatment, equipment and other infrastructure facilities, training of technical personnel with technological transfer, and cardiac ambulances placed to cover areas in Goa which would provide care until the patient reaches the hospital. He said that now is the time for the private and government sector to work together for the interest of the common man. Dr Rajesh Dhume of Asilo hospital who gave a presentation on "Our Elders, Our Dreams" painted a picture of the elderly in Goa, and spoke on various alternatives of care such as day care, respite care and residential care. Dr Meenacshi Martins Shukla spoke on alternative methods of healing in her presentation on the "wellness centre". Dr Vikram Patel of Sangath spoke on the organisation and what it has achieved till date. Dr Zaheer Kazi of Mumbai said that there is a need to tone up the health management facilities in Goa and that state of the art facilities have to be added. He said that Goans in Mumbai would love to come and contribute in some way, but it would be on an adhoc basis. In the long run, Goa has to have its own trained personnel, he clarified. He added that the Goans in Mumbai will partner and shoulder specialised programmes which can be agreed upon. Dr Oscar Rebello compered. ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################