Private hospitals are supposed to be better than government hospitals.. Or so goes the myth. my latest experience with them seemed like something out of a bad horror movie.
About ten days back my grandmother fell sick.. She just wouldn’t wake up one morning and we had to take her to a hospital.. The first hassle was to find one which would admit her.. Most of them replied saying they din have a bed or that the patient had to be admitted by one of their doctors..Then I called my friend’s mom who is a doctor, explained the situation and Mami went out of her way to help us out..
Once the call came from her , the hospital was very accommodating. Wherever my grandmother was taken she was first denied care and later admitted because she was related to someone they know. . So the first lesson I learnt, unless I know someone in the hospital you are not going to admit me..
The way the duty doctors and nurses treat the family is ludicrous.. When my father asked one of the doctors what was the situation he gave a bunch of medical terms. Being the only person with a life science background, my family often turns to me when doctors talk “their language”. But when I approached them I was told I wouldn’t understand. Isn’t it your job to make me understand?
One would expect the chief doctor to be even more arrogant than the rest of them. But I was pleasantly surprised. He was very down to earth and approachable. He explained things very clearly and gave it to us straight that her chances of survival are not very high. He was very somber and seemed to be the first person who was able to understand our difficulty. The problem was he comes to the ward one hour a day.. The other 23 hrs we have to deal with the duty doctors.. During shift change its hell.. Once doctors suggests a treatment course while the next one denies any knowledge of it..
The agony continues even after the person has passed away. She was declared dead at 8.20 p.m. Till 10 00 p.m. we were not given any information. When we went up to the desk we were informed that we cannot take her home until all bill settlements were made and the person who was in charge of billing had gone home!! I was also politely informed by a nurse that there were more tragic deaths happening around me.. Does that mean the pain we feel is less?
It’s been almost ten days now and still we haven’t received the death summary which we require to claim the medical insurance. Private medical services in India are supposed to be coming of age. Administrative systems and customer services are even worse than the medical care.
Its not something we can avoid. Getting sick and going to the hospital is something I might have face again. But with such horrible administrative system, unsympathetic nurses and doctors who don’t want to take the time to explain their treatment process, I worry if it would help heal a patient or add more stress to it.
Oh don’t take me wrong, I respect doctors, infact I have some very close friends who are doctors. I understand their need to be emotionally detached but being in the noblest profession of all shouldn’t people in the health care sector have more empathy?
