Source: Navhind Times August 15, 2014
PANAJI: If things go on schedule, Goa will soon have a new multi-speciality hospital that is unique in concept and modelled on a distinctive ownership principle vis-à-vis standard multi-specialities run by a corporate group.
On Thursday, prominent medical practitioners announced a new 210-bed, super-speciality hospital project, Healthway Hospitals at Kadamba plateau, costing Rs 170 crore that is being promoted by 33 members of the medical fraternity from North Goa.
The hospital, said Dr Virendra Gaonkar, chairman of the core team, was in the drawing board stage for two years and is ready to get off the ground now with land being purchased and starting of construction work.
The hospital, he said, is a united effort of Goan doctors practicing in the state who have a thriving practice of their own but want to come together to create a facility for affordable healthcare to residents. The land for the hospital located near Sunshine School was purchased in June last year and the building is getting ready in stages. While phase one, costing Rs 70 crore and of 160 beds, is scheduled for 2015, the second phase for the remaining beds costing Rs 100 crore is slated for 2016, he said.
All expenditure on 8,000 sq mts of land over which the hospital is located is borne by the promoting doctors, he said, adding that the group is also looking for funding from Goan business houses and prominent citizens in future.
Dr Gaunkar was accompanied by Dr Rajiv Usgaonkar, Dr Bossuet Afonso, Dr Steven Dias and Dr Shivanand Gauns, all members of the main team who were the initiators of the idea. Speaking to the media, Dr Usgaonkar said that Healthway is conceived as a doctors’ co-operative and is the first-of-its-kind not only in the state but probably in India. The fact that everybody worked on the blue-print of the project indicates the commitment of the doctors to the hospital.
The group would also like the participation of other doctors from South Goa to make the project a truly collaborative effort. Meanwhile, as a curtain raiser the group is starting a 45-bed hospital in Panaji at Mala that will commence by the next month. The hospital, they said, is renovated and will soon be run collectively as a stepping stone to the main apex institution coming up next year.
Elaborating on the 210-bed Healthway project, Dr Gauns said that it would offer a range of services extending from primary care to the treatment of complex cases. Further, the institution would offer clinical, research, academic and social responsibility services. The doctors said that although all of them have their own hospitals and are successful in their own fields, their coming together would result in dedicated team practice from all. They do not envisage difficulties in getting patients for the 210-bed hospital as they plan to transfer their thriving practice to the new hospital. The media briefing was attended by a number of doctors from Goa.
