Underground cabling, improved lighting, landscaping planned
Panaji: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said the Goa Medical College (GMC) campus will soon be developed into a ‘five-star campus’ with underground cabling, improved lighting, landscaping, parking and other facilities through the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC).
He added that all efforts would be made to complete the works by March 2027.
The Chief Minister was speaking at the inauguration of the GMC’s new Rs 40-crore Lecture Hall Complex, which is spread over 5,482 square metres, with three lecture halls having a combined capacity of 1,200 students, along with modern LED video walls, audio-visual systems, and recording, streaming and webcasting facilities.
The Chief Minister said an additional Rs 500 crore has been provided for strengthening the GMC and its allied infrastructure, including Rs 200 crore for the college block, Rs 106 crore for the Goa Association of Resident Doctors (GARD) hostel, Rs 90 crore for the boys’ hostel, and Rs 100 crore for a 100-bed facility and day-care centre at the Institute of Psychiatry & Human Behaviour (IPHB).
He said these facilities would strengthen the academic and learning infrastructure for the future medical professionals.
Sawant also informed that a plan has been readied and a consultant appointed for a project which will directly connect the Super Speciality Block with the main GMC campus through an overbridge or a fast-track link.
“I am personally following it up,” he noted, pointing out, “The objective is to integrate the facilities and develop the entire area as one unified GMC campus.”
Presently, the patients have to be shifted via ambulance from one campus to the other.
Speaking on the occasion, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane stressed on more use of AI technology in medicine.
He stated that the GMC needs to adopt advanced techniques taking into account the speedy changes in digital technology.
Sawant proposes online OPD facility at GMC
Panaji: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday suggested the introduction of an online Out Patients Department (OPD) facility at the Goa Medical College, allowing patients to share medical reports and consult doctors remotely.
He directed the health secretary and the GMC dean to take steps for generating the facility and reducing the daily OPD burden.
The online OPD will also get prescriptions renewed without the patients having to visit the hospital.
“The new facility will reduce the rush of the patients to the OPDs by 50 per cent,” Sawant reckoned.
He stated that many patients from across Goa, including remote parts like Pernem and Canacona currently travel to the GMC merely to show reports or renew prescriptions.
The facility will be created on the lines of GMC’s recently operationalised online OPD appointment system.
