By Roque Dias
Margao: Despite being completed after much delay—over a decade—and inaugurated seven years ago, the South Goa District Hospital (SGDH) in Margao continues to falter in delivering critical healthcare, forcing 21,439 patient referrals to Goa Medical College (GMC) in the last five years alone.
Official data states that trauma care is delayed due to insufficient implants and lack of MRI facilities. It also states that component blood therapy for high-risk pregnancies is unavailable, high-risk anaesthetic support is lacking, and there is a shortage of neurosurgeons to attend to stroke patients, often leading to fatalities. There are no ventilator facilities for pneumonia patients.
“The hospital needs essential services such as neurology, neurosurgery, ICU and CCU. Many patients died en route to GMC, which located nearly 30 km away,” said locals dependent on the hospital.
Official data reveals the hospital’s shortfall, with SGDH referring 21,439 cases between 2021 and 2025.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has repeatedly promised upgrades of the hospital but failed to deliver, worsening the situation for South Goa’s population, said locals.
Critics, including political opponents, activists and social workers, said that delays resulting from referrals cost lives, with patients gasping for breath or suffering strokes without on-site intervention and required facilities at SGDH, Margao.
“The Margao MLA and former chief minister, Digambar Kamat, who laid the foundation stone of this hospital in 2008, was also unable to provide the much-needed life-saving facilities. We do not know why the government is neglecting South Goa people in terms of healthcare by denying important life-saving facilities at the SGDH,” stated affected people.
Local MLA Vijai Sardesai and members of the Goa Forward Party have led agitations, conducted surprise inspections and raised the issue repeatedly in the Goa Legislative Assembly, yet progress has not been seen. “And all that is falling on deaf ears, emergency patients have increased silently and so have their curses for neglecting the entire district in providing critical healthcare facilities,” stated kin of victims.
