It was a humid night in 2017. A newly appointed Health Minister walked into the Goa Medical College casualty at 2 a.m. without protocol, without cameras. A child from a remote village lay critical, waiting for a ventilator bed that didn’t exist. Vishwajit Rane stayed till sunrise, called engineers, shifted equipment from another ward, and saved the child. The very next week, fifty new ICU beds were sanctioned.
That night was not an exception. It became the rule. From that moment, healthcare in Goa stopped being a department. It became a personal mission.
A Promise Whispered in Every Village
Vishwajit Rane carries one sentence in his heart and repeats it wherever he goes: “We are committed to making Goa a model state for healthcare, where every Goan can lead a healthy, empowered and dignified life.”
It is not a slogan. It is the soul of everything he has built.
The Three Pillars He Lives By
The entire Goa Model of Healthcare flows from three deep convictions that the Minister never tires of explaining. First, selfless service to the people — because a doctor or nurse who sees himself as a government servant can never heal the way a Sevak can. Second, prevention that reaches homes before disease does — because catching cancer in stage one costs the state a few thousand rupees, while treating stage four costs crores and often a life. Third, world-class treatment that no longer forces Goans to board trains to Mumbai, Bengaluru or Delhi with fear in their eyes and empty pockets.
Inspired by the Greatest, Guided by the Best
He never speaks without bowing in gratitude to the leadership that lights his path. The vision comes from Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji — a leader who taught India that health is the real wealth of a nation. The constant guidance and support flow from Hon’ble Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Shri J.P. Nadda Ji, whose experience and encouragement have turned many of Goa’s dreams into sanctioned reality.
Yet anyone who has sat in a review meeting with Vishwajit Rane knows the truth: the fire burns from within.
From Darkness to Dawn: The Transformation
A decade ago, a cancer diagnosis in Goa meant selling land, borrowing at cruel interest rates, and months away from home in alien cities. A childless couple knew they would never afford IVF. A heart attack in a village often meant the end before the ambulance arrived.
Today the story is different. A woman in Quepem discovers a lump, walks into the nearest centre, gets screened under Swasth Mahila, and begins treatment before the disease spreads — all free. A couple in Pernem who prayed for fifteen years welcomes their first child because IVF is now provided in a government hospital without a single rupee changing hands. A fisherman in Canacona collapses at the jetty; within eleven minutes an advanced cardiac life-support ambulance reaches him, stabilises him, and brings him to a hospital where angioplasty is performed the same night — again, free of cost.
The Silent Revolution Nobody Talks About
While headlines chase controversies, a quiet revolution has been unfolding across Goa’s twelve talukas. Primary health centres that once had broken chairs now boast digital records, instant diagnostics, and video consultations with super-specialists in Panaji. Dialysis units have sprung up in places people had never imagined — Margao, Mapusa, Ponda, Curchorem, even Valpoi. The Cancer Institute that rose on the Bambolim plateau is no longer just a building; it is hope made of concrete and glass where patients walk in terrified and walk out smiling because someone told them, “We will take care of everything.”
The Man Who Still Walks the Wards
Colleagues whisper stories that never make the news. The Minister who lands unannounced at a PHC at 5:30 a.m. to see if the night staff is alert. The Minister who sits on a plastic chair outside the ICU at 1 a.m., explaining to a frightened family what the surgeon is doing inside. The Minister who remembers the name of a cancer patient he met two years ago in Sanguem and calls the doctor to check if her chemotherapy cycle is on track.
He still carries the heart of the doctor he once was.
The Road That Lies Ahead
The journey is far from over. On his table lies an ambitious roadmap for 2030: a medical college seat for every eight hundred citizens instead of the current two thousand two hundred, health ATMs in every panchayat that can test sugar, pressure, ECG and dispense medicines, an AI system that predicts disease outbreaks before they happen, and finally the dream that keeps him awake — making Goa India’s first state where no citizen ever pays a single rupee out of pocket for any treatment, from a fever tablet to a heart transplant.
A Healthier Land, A Happier People
As the sun sets over the Mandovi, one message travels from the Minister’s office to the farthest village: “Together, with the blessings of our people and the guidance of our national leadership, we are building a Goa where health is not a fear — it is a certainty. A Swasth Goa. A Samruddh Goa.”