GMC docs to provide weekly OPD services at Valpoi CHC

Panaji: Health minister Vishwajit Rane on Tuesday held a meeting with senior health officials to discuss the implementation of an integrated healthcare model. It was decided that from June 1, consultants from Goa Medical College (GMC) will visit community health centre, Valpoi every Wednesday to provide out-patient department (OPD) services for medicine, gynaecology, paediatrics, gynaecology along with general surgery.
“The model led by Dr Kalpana Mahatme, nodal officer for the initiative, will be operational from June 1,” Rane declared via a social media post.
The meeting was attended by GMC dean Dr S M Bandekar along with director of health services Dr Geeta Kakodkar and several senior health officials.
The idea behind the new initiative was that people need not travel to GMC to avail of specialised healthcare which the local facility may not be able to offer.
It is not certain if the initiative will be replicated in other talukas of the state. Kakodkar said they will have to see how the new initiative works in Valpoi.
It has been observed that though the state has two district hospitals and also sub-district hospitals —one each in Ponda and Chicalim, patients with even minor ailments get referred to GMC, mostly in the evenings.
A senior GMC doctor said the trend has continued for the last many years, though they had hoped that district hospitals will stop referring cases to GMC once their facilities are upgraded, and all vacancies are filled.