My sister is a Doctor, an MD to be precise. After initial few years practicing abroad and in India, she mostly was a teaching faculty in various medical colleges.
Now she has retired a couple of years back, and is highly reluctant to take up any of the many lucrative offers from the corporate / high-fi hospitals coming her way, having been totally disillusioned with, in her own words - the rampant professional and commercial malpractices.
As per her intimate knowledge of the profession, following wrong practices have become order of the day :
1. Going in for unending test and diagnostics , ranging from routine to pretty costly ones. Most of them are not only unnecessary, but automatically lead to another battery of " confirmatory " tests. Most of these have now become even fashionable.
2. Referring from one specialist to another specialist " for opinion ' in a chain of investigations for the same problem. It then becomes a kind of " collective " opinion/diagnosis, esp to safeguard against future fiascoes.
3. Prescribing and insisting for medicines by specific brands, and expressing displeasure and discouraging you from seeking generics.
4. Ceasarean sections are the common norm ( mostly under pretext of last moment fetal distress ), with normal deliveries being exception.
4. During hospital admission, made to buy medicines , injections et al ( of costliest possible brands ) from the hospital pharmacy itself and at FULL MRP, when the same / ditto similar medicines available almost half the price outside. They categorically and OMINOUSLY mention in the admission forms that they will not be responsible for any treatment in case medicine is bought from any other source ( as if they are , even if bought internally !! ).
5. Deliberately extending your stay in hospital, especially in ICU ( which can cost anything from 10 to 25,000/- per day ) both, pre & post OT under the innocuous guise of " keeping under observation and then similarly followed by longish stay in pvt/semi-pvt wards, on a variety of medical pretexts which are bound to invoke fear and apprehension. This also gives them a golden opportunity to individually charge for
doctors' visits to the patient in the room ( normally, in a day, min 3 doctors/residents/interns will " drop-in " , with generally 500 to 1,000/- per visit per day , in your final bill ). Mostly the amount is required to be deposited daily " in-advance ", on a kind of pre-paid basis.
As it is very easy to discern, each of above practices are out & out money-spinners, both, to the individual on commission basis , as well commercially lucrative to the corporate hospital / establishment.
And another DIABOLICAL revelation has also been made ( which on hindsight and recalling known cases, definitely sound to be true ) ~~ a majority of Operations conducted in OTs, invariably get followed by bouts of INFECTIONs in the wound/stitches, or any similar post-operative problems - which too result in protracted admission periods or repeat admissions.
These essentially fall under the category of " HOSPITAL INDUCED INFECTIONS " ~~ entirely due to wanton negligence in maintaining adequate hygiene & sanitation standards. OTs are over-used with back to back operation schedules, with little time for maintaining even minimum essential standards of fumigation, sterilization of a bewildering array of equipment lying around, disorganized laboratories rodents/mosquitoes/flies/inse cts, their own nursing staff , operators ( most of which is Contractual ) etc, disregarding / flouting rules of footwear and sterilized clothes, the list is unending. {{ ** This phenomenon is especially true in Mumbai corporate hospitals , as per my inputs. }}
Those amongst us who are able to avail the services of a Mil Hospital by virtue of a resident ECHS cell or otherwise, are still much better off. But those who are dependent entirely on " Empanneled Hospitals ", including the big shot ones like Fortis, Max etc -- God save them. It is even worse for our civilian friends & relatives. The mushrooming of Medical Insurance and Corporate empannalment has only give unprecedented rise to these malpractices.
Our own personal experience. Initially post retirement, I & my wife used to get thrilled when a choice was given to us from ECHS to choose from any of the reputed CORPORATE hospitals, but the thrill was rather short-lived !! When I found a couple of specialists in Fortis as well as Max (including a Gastro and a Surgeon ) giving a rather perfunctory and superficial treatment in an almost nonchalant manner, I walked up to their Registrar and mentioned to him - he, while apologizing profusely ( may be pre-empt a written complaint ) , he very diplomatically put across that they hardly get their money's worth at ECHS rates !!
Even today, the rate of consultation when you vist one is 150/- , where as they charge min Rs. 350-500 from a civilian. Well so much so for the big names. When I mentioned this to my Oic, ECHS , he gave a knowing smile and said that it is very difficult to get around these big names.
Well, to be fair to the medical profession, as per my sis, THERE ARE some really good, dedicated and genuine ones too, but unfortunately they are in minority and not easy to locate/find
No comments:
Post a Comment