Goa CM Pramod Sawant says will visit GMC today, doctors say bring health minister Vishwajit Rane too

Panaji: Even as Goa Medical College (GMC) doctors demanded a public apology in the hospital’s casualty department by health minister Vishwajit Rane, chief minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday that Rane has already tendered his apology.

“I convinced them (the doctors) that he publicly tendered his apology and the issue has to be resolved,” said Sawant.

On Monday evening, after protests, members of the Goa Association of Resident Doctors (GARD), GMC dean S M Bandekar, and consultants, among others, met Sawant to discuss and resolve the issue. The CM’s intervention followed protests by doctors who insisted on an apology from Rane for abusing and threatening chief medical officer Dr Rudresh Kuttikar.

Sawant told GARD that he would visit GMC’s casualty department on Tuesday to end the deadlock, but GARD told him to bring Rane with him. They told the CM that Rane could tender an apology at casualty without cameras, but he has to tender his apology.

“They raised around 10 issues with me,” said Sawant. “Nine issues have been resolved. I assure them that henceforth, such incidents will not be repeated in GMC. I hope that the issue will be resolved, and they should resolve it. I have requested them not to go on strike. I told them that I will come to casualty.”

Asked whether GARD’s main demand — Rane’s public apology — was also addressed by the CM, Bandekar said, “That part was not discussed.”

Rane on Saturday directed the immediate suspension of Kuttikar following a complaint from a journalist of Marathi newspaper alleging that the doctor told a patient to go to an urban health centre to receive an injection. Sawant on Sunday assured the doctors that he would not suspend the CMO.