Goa: ‘Nutured this baby with great care, hard work’

MARGAO: With the administrative reshuffle having taken place in the ESI-Covid hospital, deputy director of health services, Dr Ira Ameida who was removed as its nodal officer, expressed her satisfaction over having been able to “nurture this baby with great care and hard work” from the time the ESI hospital was designated as the Covid hospital on March 25.
Almeida exuded confidence that the change of guard at the Covid hospital and the transition of its management to Goa Medical College and hospital would be a smooth affair. “Our team has been managing the effort for the past four months, but the scale now certainly calls for a much larger team and effort and there can be no better than that from the state’s apex hospital,” Almeida said.
She pointed out that the medical care at the ESI-Covid hospital had always been provided by the GMC and complemented by the ESI staff with directorate of health services (DHS) handling administration, human resources and procurement, while also providing support whenever needed.
The handover meeting took place on Tuesday after a detailed verbal briefing with Dr Vishwajit Phaldessai and Dr Uday Kakodkar and GMC/ESI specialist teams, during which she went over various admin and other relevant processes, she said.
“I handed over a written copy of the handover document to Dr Vishwajit who accepted the signed document. As per the order I should have handed over to Dr Jagdish Kakodkar, HoD, preventive medicine as the newly appointed administrator. However, Dr Jagdish was not present at the handover meeting. Dr Uday declined to sign the handover document as he said he had not received the official order. The handover meeting was also attended by 15 doctors (specialist teams from GMC and ESI) including me as this also served as our final briefing which we used to conduct twice daily as a matter of course,” she told TOI.
Almeida assured of her support to the new officers taking charge of the Covid hospital. “I remain committed to seeing the Covid hospital succeed in the service of the community in these demanding times under the new management,” Almeida said. “I am fully committed to handholding the new team during their transition,” she said, adding that the Hospicio team has been working on Covid management since February.