On the last day, I had a chat with the doctor treating me. I asked why the first consultation amount (not a small amount at Rs 750) is valid for just three days when the prescription given on the first meeting is usually for five days. This means the same sum has to be paid again on the second visit. Why is the first charge not valid - since the second visit is for the same illness presumably - for at least five days?
The hospital, he told me, had recently changed its rules. The first consultation charge used to be for seven days, so the patient could usually manage a follow-up visit within the first consultation fee. Only recently had the hospital cut the number of days down to three. He had no clear answer why this was so.
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In 2013, I had a minor surgery and was admitted to a Gurgaon hospital, which is part of a nationwide chain. The hotel - pardon me calling it that but that's really what it looks like - had me admitted just for a night but when I saw the bill I found a couple of visits - doctors who had poked their head in and smiled at me - charged that I couldn't fathom why. These head-pokes can be quite expensive depending on the seniority and experience of the head. I didn't quite understand their contribution to my treatment, so I refused to pay for this. They agreed. So it was either a matter of poor communication or it was by design.
These are just two instances, but there is no end to instances of the rising costs of health care in India and the kind of malpractices that have crept in. Doctors have targets they need to meet like sales executives. A friend's brother - a senior doctor at a Delhi hospital - moved to the aforementioned Gurgaon hospital for a week but went right back when he realised he had stiff targets to meet. He's someone who usually advises against surgery. Targets like the kind he was being asked to meet were daunting and probably not achievable.
Then a friend, who has been part of the system for over 20 years, says that several leading hospitals have actually stationed "agents" at airports to offer the best packages to medical tourists coming in from the Middle East and some neighbouring countries for treatment. He says competition among agents is severe. The patients are lured at the airport and brought straight to the hospitals after a deal is struck.
A few questions arise in my mind. Why are we - with our eyes wide open - allowing the Indian health care system to head the American way? We are in fact conspiring together happily to make this happen. Two, do we really need hotels instead of hospitals? Do we actually need plush, over-the-top interiors and exteriors that add to the cost of running the place - costs that are happily passed on to patients? When I first visited the Gurgaon hospital, it took me a few minutes to absorb my surroundings - that's how elaborate the decor was. People attending to patients can even watch a film - there is some kind of provision for this.
The doctor I met charged Rs 450 at his humbler clinic in one of Gurgaon's HUDA sectors. At the private hospital you pay Rs 750 for the same doctor, service, diagnosis and time. The difference is only attributable to the surroundings. Do we need hotels or efficient clean functional spaces with good doctors? Do we need an IndiGo or a Kingfisher? Are we paying for the ambience or the treatment?
And last, while I don't want to cast aspersions, humans by nature can and do succumb to greed. Who in this case will keep the private sector in check? Can we really expect this of the government, which has failed to regulate sector after sector? It may be time that we as citizens take some of these matters into our hands. Else, we will be sitting on a similar time bomb as Barack Obama has through his term. ModiCare - like ObamaCare - will then become a reality.