Former AIIMS director to shape Goa's health policy

Panaji, Aug 29 (IANS) As Goa drafts its health policy, a leading Delhi-based doctor and former director of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Dr P.K. Dave has been entrusted the responsibility of finding out what ails the healthcare sector in the state.

Health Minister Laxmikant Parsenkar, who is also president of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) state unit, told IANS Wednesday that Dave had been asked to prepare an exhaustive roadmap for healthcare in Goa and submit a report within six weeks.

"The brief given to Dave is extensive. He has been asked to holistically assess Goa's healthcare system and its weaknesses. We have given him a month and a half to submit a report," Parsenkar said.

The health minister said Dave was a renowned medical professional and administrator. As director of the New Delhi-based AIIMS, he had treated some of the country's top VVIPs.

"There is no better person than Dave to help us improve our healthcare system. Along with being a doctor, he has also served as an administrator of India's premier hospital," Parsenkar said.

Dave has been assigned the responsibility of taking stock of hospitals and primary health centres and studying health-related schemes of the government of Goa. According to Parsenkar, Dave's suggestions could form the cornerstone of health policy in the state.

The study will also take into account public-private partnership (PPP) issues in the healthcare sector, which created a controversy while the Congress-led coalition government was in power over the last seven years.