Panaji, Apr 24 (IANS): Goa Chief Minster Pramod Sawant, who turned 47 on Friday, spent a few hours volunteering with a team of doctors at the North Goa district hospital in the Mapusa town, a government health facility where he practiced 12 years ago.

Sawant, who is a Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery from the Ganga Education Society's Ayurvedic Medical College in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, said, that he volunteered to assist the government hospital's out patient department, to show support to the medical team fighting from the frontlines in the battle against COVID-19.

"Serving the people has always been my passion and source of immense satisfaction. On my birthday today, I volunteered to join the team of doctors at OPD of the District hospital Mapusa," Sawant said in a social media post.

"I took a round of the hospital and examined eight to ten patients. I am practicing and examining patients at this hospital for the first time since 2008, when I was employed here," Sawant told reporters.

Sawant quit his government job as a doctor of alternative medicines to join politics more than a decade ago.

"In this hour of crisis, our medical team is fighting from the frontline. We need to acknowledge and commend their service to the mankind!" he also said.