September has been a deadly one for Goa’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and amid all the rising cases and mismanagement, is the tough ordeal that people in Goa have to go through – may it be a covid test, a check-up, or any routine treatment. Detailed below is a personal elucidation of a covid positive patient and how she had to struggle to avail for basic medical facilities. The patient is now cured of covid-19.
Louella Godinho, 63, a resident of Calangute was subjected to complete distress and utter shocking approach from the medical establishments that she approached during the course of her covid treatment. She, however, is just one of the few who have decided to speak up against such treatments given to patients at government run facilities, while many such incidents go disregarded on a daily basis.
After her daughter fell ill, she (the daughter) underwent a covid and dengue test. The covid test returned negative, but her daughter had tested positive for dengue.
The Condition of PHC Candolim:
A week later, after developing a dry cough and feeling ill, Louella decided to do a covid test for herself. On September 11th, what she witnessed at the Primary Health center Candolim was nothing short of shocking, as the health center was in a complete mess.
“If you see the horrific state of the primary health center at Candolim, you will be shocked,” says Louella, adding that most of the people availing a test were outsiders. “And there is no place to sit there at the health center. The sitting arrangement is so far away from where one has to do a test.”
Accordingly, in view of the covid-19 pandemic, benches and other social distancing arrangements were put in place at almost all medical facilities in the state, however, here, all safety protocols were up for a toss.
The PHC Candolim had circles painted to maintain distance, however, there were more people than the distance marked, and as such, people were all crowded close together. Furthermore, outside the PHC, all puddles with murky water were collected, rendering everyone waiting for a test helpless but to stand in such pathetic conditions.
“I was standing with my one foot in water and the other on a stone. Such is the state of the primary health center at Candolim,” she said.
The medical officer and other health officials have ignored these dilapidated conditions, and with people silent on such issues, authorities have had an easy let-off.
Sadly, this year, areas of Candolim and Calangute have become hotspots for the dengue infection also, and with such dirty conditions, the situation only appears to get worse.
Louella said, “Because health centers are free (for covid tests and other basic treatment) many are sent here, but now it’s even free to catch other diseases such as dengue or malaria.”
Later, after doing the test, despite repeated attempts, Louella did not get her test results, while others who got tested along with her receiving the SMS in a few hours. After her antigen test was negative, which she was informed late that night, she only received an SMS after two days stating that her RT-PCR test result was positive.
According to a source, however, RT-PCR tests are conducted after antigen tests are negative, and if the patient still persists to have symptoms. These RT-PCR tests do take at least a little over a day considering that they take more than six hours to test and bearing in mind a single day caseload, it may vary.
“In such cases, the patient should stay isolated until they get their result. And if they do feel unwell, they should approach the nearest medical facility,” said the source.
District Hospital, Peddem:
“My next bad experience was at the district hospital in Peddem,” said Louella, who had to make a visit to have a routine health check-up after having tested positive.
“Filthy is not even the word to describe the district hospital. Each ward had just one bathroom, men and women together. The patients were given good food, but there was just one small dustbin to dispose of the waste. All the food remnants were thrown on the floor,” she said.
Furthermore, the people were washing their plates in the same bathroom. As Louella was waiting for her check-up, one lady, to her dismay even kept a food plate on the bench where she was laying down.
The district hospital at Peddem was a complete mess, with no proper waste management, and with covid wards and patients, some amount of seriousness should be practiced by everyone. Louella pointed out that later the filthy garbage was collected.
At the hospital, she, along with her husband and daughter had to then face the rude behavior of a doctor, who even told her to “get out” after they did not have a letter for the check-up, which according to their doctor was not needed as they were already informed to go to the hospital directly.
“It’s a public hospital running with taxpayer’s money, and being a no-nonsense person, I said that if it’s anybody who should get out, it should be you (the doctor),” Louella said.
The distress however didn’t end there. Despite being weak, Louella was asked to walk the length of the hospital to the second floor for her X-ray to be done. Then, the X-ray machine could not be found, and after they did find one, a plug-point could not be located nearby to use the machine.
Shockingly, after all this, they realized that the machine itself was not working, and only half an hour later another one was brought. But to add to the patient’s discomfort, the technician to operate it wasn’t available at that moment. Although being a Sunday, some time was understandable, she said, but what could be completed in a mere 15-20 minutes took Louella four hours at the district hospital in Peddem.
“It was only God that did not get me sicker in this hospital,” she says after all that she had to go through at the hospital in what was a regular health check-up.
“After that, my X-ray results were mixed up with someone else’s,” she adds.
“One fails to understand the type of treatment and literal torture any illiterate or a poor person has to go through if educated people itself go through such hardships,” she says.
Post all this, she was informed that she had to show her X-ray results to the new Asilo hospital in Mapusa, while at the same time she had to go into quarantine too.
“How do you expect me to go to show the X-ray report there when you are also telling to go into quarantine at the same time?” she said. Louella went straight into quarantine post her visit to the district hospital.
There are several ordeals that other patients have to go through on a daily basis, with medical facilities at several centers in a very sad state. Also, above all, what one needs the most is easy accessibility to a doctor, and through all these incidents, one only fails to understand the pity state of our medical infrastructure.
“I am grateful that I’m alright today. Many others have been swinging between dangers, struggling for beds, and many others even dying,” says Louella, who recounts that a man standing next to her during her covid test at the PHC also tested positive, but he succumbed to the infection today (Thursday) after battling for his life at Goa Medical College.
Louella also pointed out about the stigma that has been associated with the virus. “The stigma around the virus is so bad, it is worse than the virus,” she says.
She however did appreciate the efforts of the local panchayat for having dedicated waste management collection for home isolated covid positive patients.
The state’s covid fight is only going to get tougher with the days to come, and if such incidents continue, the public will be at the receiving end of such ill-treatment. The government needs to ramp up facilities and make existing ones better approachable to many, all, keeping in mind the utmost safety of the unseen infection.
