Relief to patients as Hospicio dialysis unit once again resumes operation

NT NETWORK

MARGAO

Dr Venkatesh R on Wednesday restarted the dialysis unit yet again at the Hospicio Hospital in Margao by drawing power supply from a Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment facility located nearby bringing some relief to the patients.

State departments, in the meanwhile, continued with their inquiry into the fire that had broken out last week at the unit located on the second floor of the hospital building. The fire had destroyed two dialysis machines.

It may be noted that the dialysis unit had resumed operations on Monday following the fire incident. However, a day after resumption of operations with the help of a power generator, the unit was forced to stop the operations on Tuesday, as the hospital said that a detailed report on the fire incident was awaited.

Dr Venkatesh, who has been given the task of running the unit, has now started drawing electricity from one line of the power supply to a RO water treatment plant, which is located above the dialysis unit. The plant also serves to provide clean treated water to the dialysis unit.

“There is a water treatment plant on the terrace specifically for the dialysis unit to provide clean treated water to the unit. It has three phases. Since the hospital has not restored power supply to the dialysis unit, I used one line to power the dialysis machines,” he said adding that on Wednesday the unit began functioning only after 12 pm.

Nine patients were seen at the unit on Wednesday availing the dialysis service. “I prefer coming here for the doses rather than visiting any of the other hospitals because I don’t have to pay anything here. In private hospitals, I have to spend around Rs 5,000 per visit. The doctor here is so much better; elsewhere they don’t treat you with care and instead talk down to patients,” said a patient, who was availing his dialysis dose. He, however, pointed out that the power supply was fluctuating thus making it difficult to avail the service.

The dialysis unit was restarted by the doctor on Monday following the fire incident last week, with the help of an external power generator. However, he was forced to stop the operations. Dr Venkatesh also claimed that the person providing the power generator was threatened causing him to discontinue with his help.

Hospicio Hospital medical superintendent Dr Ira Almeida, meanwhile, said that no official permission has been given to the dialysis unit yet to restart and that the hospital is awaiting a report on the fire incident.

“We have not given any direction for restarting the unit, as we are waiting for the report on fire. Today, officials from the electricity department visited the site,” she said adding that the final report may be ready later this week.

Fatorda police inspector Navlesh Desai was present at the hospital premises along with officials from the electricity department conducting an inspection of the area. “We are still in the process of our investigation,” he said.