Goa health minister Rane abuses, threatens GMC doc on camera, sparks furore

Panaji: Health minister Vishwajit Rane on Saturday directed the immediate suspension of an on-duty chief medical officer (CMO) at Goa Medical College’s casualty department. Rane’s move followed a complaint alleging that the doctor told a patient to go to an urban health centre to receive an injection.
In a video widely shared on social media, Rane is seen telling the senior doctor to “go home” and “shut up”, and issued directions to “kick him out of here”. When the doctor tried to respond, Rane told him, “You are not authorised to speak when I am speaking” and “first learn to shut up when I am talking to you”, before telling him to “get out from here”. As the doctor tried to reason with the minister, Rane said, “When I make up my mind, I don’t want to listen to you... “Don’t open your mouth when I’m talking.”
“You’re dealing with me. You want to file a case, file a case,” Rane told the doctor, adding, “go home before my blood pressure boils”.
The video clip angered netizens, who didn’t appreciate the minister’s “herogiri” and slammed him. They alleged that while he was preaching to the doctor to serve the poor, as TCP minister, he allegedly serves the rich from Delhi-NCR and Haryana, and thus has no moral right to preach. Other commentators online said that Rane’s frustration stems from a land grabbing case, and said that he should have inspected the TCP and PDA offices and suspended those officials instead.
The complaint that sparked the minister’s reaction related to a 77-year-old woman and her daughter, relatives of a journalist, who went to GMC on Saturday to receive an injection for the knee. The orthopaedic patient was told she was required to take the injection every day for ten days, Saturday being the fourth day. As OPDs were closed on Saturday, the patient was asked to go to GMC’s casualty department, where the CMO allegedly didn’t guide the patient properly, and told her to go to the urban health centre for the injection.
Rane lectured the doctor on how to talk to patients, and not send them from pillar to post but to guide them properly. He told the doctor he was at GMC to “serve poor people”. “However much loaded you are, you will talk properly and guide the patient,” Rane said, addressing the doctor in the casualty department.
Rane directed GMC’s medical superintendent, Dr Rajesh Patil, to get orders issued to suspend the doctor, and told him to get another CMO to replace him.