Commoners being treated as children of lesser God
The treatment of COVID-19 patients in state government hospitals has come under cloud owing to the admission of the director of health services Dr Jose D’Sa to a private hospital in the city after he tested positive for the virus. The director of health services is among several government VIPs infected by COVID-19 who have preferred to go to private hospitals. They include Union Minister of State for Ayush and Defence and North Goa Member of Parliament, Shripad Naik, former PWD minister and MLA Ramkrishna Dhavlikar and sitting MLA Churchill Alemao. It is not only in Goa that politicians and senior officials infected by COVID-19 have preferred to be treated in private hospitals. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Chauhan, Chief Minister of Karnataka B S Yediyurappa and Health Minister of Delhi Satyendra Jain are some of the high-profile politicians who went to private hospitals.
It is surprising to note that though the Goa government made three wards at the Goa Medical College and Hospital operational for treating patients with severe COVID-19 conditions including comorbidities, none of the very important persons have been admitted to these facilities. Doubts are bound to grow in the people’s minds that the facilities at the GMCH are not adequate to handle severe cases. Because, they feel, why would the politicians and top officers go to private hospitals for treatment unless they had no faith in government facilities? The people expected them to lead by example and get themselves treated in state hospitals to send a message to people across Goa that government hospitals were well-equipped to deal with the cases. The regret and lament is bound to be more in the families of the patients with comorbid conditions who succumbed to COVID infection. These families cannot be faulted if they feel that had they had money they too could have taken their departed one to a private hospital where they might have survived. The state has recorded 171 COVID-related deaths, of which 126 took place in August alone. Families lament that the death of their dear ones occurred due to lack of proper facilities and care.
Dr D’Sa has been at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus since the first case was detected in the state. His early recovery would be good for the coordination of the work of the many teams of able and dedicated doctors and paramedical staff. Yet it would have been better if he had got himself admitted to the GMCH or the COVID hospital at Margao—if not for anything, just to demonstrate to the Goans at large that the government had set up all the facilities required for treating COVID-19 patients in the state hospitals, that there was no need for the people to fear that they might not get the required treatment if they get admitted to government hospitals, especially in cases of emergencies. With the director of health services himself going for treatment to a private hospital, the faith of the people in the treatment facilities at government COVID centres is sure to be shaken.
The continuing scourge of the coronavirus with a high number of deaths has exposed the tall claims of the government that Goa had best medical facilities. With newer COVID-19 cases being recorded in hundreds and more than one percent of the state population infected by the virus so far, the weaknesses in the state government’s COVID management strategies have come out in the open. The state government had been absolving itself of any responsibility for the rise in mortality by saying most of the deceased had comorbid conditions. It was only recently that they made some arrangements for treating comorbid COVID patients in a limited number. With the VIPs with or without comorbidities preferring to be admitted to private hospitals, the state government has a huge responsibility to address people’s concerns about the level of equipment and medical care available for comorbid patients in government hospitals. It is absolutely necessary that in such a serious crisis people do not lose their faith in the public health care system. The government must upgrade the facilities and medical care at its hospitals to match the best in the private sector.