----------------------------------------------------------------------- Documented by Goa Desc Documentation Service & circulated by Goa Civic & Consumer Action Network (GOA CAN)<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Ph:2252660 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------- Health not Wealth ----------------------- I was not happy that the state Health Minister went to Cannes with regard to Goa being the permanent venue for the International Film Festival of India. I would have appreciated if he had spent that time going around our dilapidated health centres and finding out what is going wrong with them, or wooing the Union health ministry to set up a super-speciality hospital in Goa.
Goa may have been listed as the best state in the country, but that does not mean that all is well in the state. As Goa is listed high in affluence, along with it come lifestyle related diseases like cardiac problems, hypertension, diabetes, alcoholism, and accidents, which need to be taken care of urgently.
Unfortunately, the state government and the health authorities have hardly taken any steps in that direction. The shambles of our peripheral health centres (improper infrastructure, lack of doctors and other staff), and the high cost of private health care compel patients to rush to the Goa Medical College even for minor illnesses.
The GMC is overburdened mainly because it has to cater to ailments which otherwise should have easily been taken care of at the peripheral centres.
The crores of rupees and the multiplexes we would be building for a film
festival venue could very well be prioritised for putting in place and streamlining
our health care system.
The amount of money spent on the visit of the state delegation to Cannes could have been better used to send a few of our young doctors in GMC for training abroad.
The priorities of the government are not clear. A healthy city instead of a film city is a much better proposition.
ATUL NAIK, Mandrem in a letter to the Editor ------------------------------------------------ The Navhind Times 19/6/03 page 10 ------------------------------------------------
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