Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday that a medical college would be started in Pernem to boost healthcare and education in the taluka and to reduce referrals to GMC.He was speaking at the inauguration of the 100-bed ground-plus-one govt hospital and research centre (GMC link) at Tuem on Monday. The hospital was inaugurated seven years after it was readied.The hospital started offering OPDs in medicine, orthopaedics, dental, and x-ray services, he said.“It will take between four and six months to start an operation theatre. It has already been tendered. We will also require anaesthetists and surgeons. To run an ICU, ICU interventionists have to be made available,” he said, adding that DHS has already advertised posts and consultants have come on board. He appealed to doctors in Goa and practising out of Goa “to come on board as consultants”.Health minister Vishwajit Rane said the hospital is not a sub-district hospital but will function as a full-fledged district hospital on a par with the North Goa district hospital. He added that there are plans in place to start not only a medical college but a nursing college too linked to the Tuem hospital.The inauguration came after months of protests by locals urging the govt to expedite its opening. The Tuem hospital action committee threatened to initiate a hunger strike if the facility was not made operational by the end of the month.The hospital will be staffed by doctors from GMC and health services. In addition, a dedicated research centre in collaboration with the National Centre for Disease Control and other research organisations will be established at the hospital to promote advanced healthcare research.
