Margao: With South Goa District Hospital (SGDH) facing an acute shortage of beds, forcing some patients to be accommodated on stretchers and wheelchairs, authorities are considering shifting the nursing college operating from the hospital’s fourth floor to the old Hospicio premises to create additional space for patients.Sources said the nursing college, which began functioning from the fourth floor last year as a temporary arrangement pending identification of a permanent location, may be shifted to the old Hospicio hospital in Margao. The proposal is still at a preliminary stage. If implemented, it would free up the entire fourth floor for patient care.The old Hospicio hospital currently houses the paediatric palliative care unit, while part of the heritage structure remains in a dilapidated condition, sources said.Meanwhile, the hospital administration is making arrangements to provide reclining chairs to patients who cannot be accommodated on beds.“We are making arrangements for reclining chairs to be provided to patients so that they are not made to sit on stools. This is purely a stop-gap arrangement, so that some relief can be provided to them,” said Dr Rajendra Borkar, medical superintendent, SGDH.Borkar attributed the surge in patient inflow to the seasonal transition. “Every monsoon and post-monsoon, the number of cases seeking admission to the hospital rises significantly. In another 15-20 days, the number of patients will come down. During the monsoon, we typically see a rise in respiratory and gastrointestinal cases, and now, with the change in season, viral, respiratory and gastro-intestinal cases are all rising together,” he said.He said the hospital had limited options but to continue treating patients despite the constraints. “In such cases, we have limited options — send them to Goa Medical College, Bambolim, and make it choke, and GMC will send them back to us again, or send them home. The next best option is what we are doing — treating them within whatever constraints we face,” Borkar said.He added that SGDH largely receives patients requiring close observation, as cases that cannot be treated at primary health centres are referred there. “Patients that we get are those needing close observation, unlike those in the PHCs, as cases which cannot be treated in the periphery are sent to us,” he said, adding that the hospital operates at around 80% occupancy at any given time.
