PHC’s erratic ambulance service worries Marcaim locals

PONDA: The lack of necessary facilities at the Marcaim primary health center (PHC) has resulted in a few avoidable deaths of late, leaving locals concerned about the shortfalls at the PHC.
A local resident said that due to the lack of proper ambulance services at the PHC, a 45-year-old person, who suffered a cardiac arrest, recently lost his life. He added that the PHC has an ambulance but the driver of the ambulance was not regular in his service.
Dr Gokuldas Sawant, health officer at Marcaim PHC, admitted that the health center has just one driver to operate the ambulance and on his off day, the ambulance service gets paralyzed.
Locals claimed that the PHC had three medical officers, but the government has allotted a woman doctor child care leave (CCL) without making substitute arrangements and that has led to shortage of doctors at the heath center.
The Marcaim health centre caters to the needs of roughly around 25,000
people, that includes residents of Kundaim, Gaunem, Veling-Priol and Cuncoliem village area.
On an average, around 70 to 80 patients visit the health center out-patient departments (OPDs) every day. The 12-bed PHC admits patients for minor illnesses and post-maternity care. The health care also conducts some non-complicated deliveries and in case of any complications found during a pre-maternity check up, the patients are either referred to Ponda sub-district hospital or Goa medical college and hospital, Bambolim, as per the severity of complications, the health officer said.
The health center, that was built son land admeasuring about 5,000 sq m in 1992, has an operation theatre, which is unused due to lack of any surgeon. Sawant said that the operation theatre was last used about two years ago, when the Ponda ID hospital was temporarily housed in the PHC premises as the new building of the hospital (now Ponda SDH) was under construction.
“The health center covers a vast area and an industrial estate. Besides, the center is spread over a large area and could be easily utilized even for secondary care services if government allots some more specialists, infrastructure and makes some repairs to the health center building,” Sawant said.