Jan 12, 2013 01:16 PM
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Like many old institutions in India (set up during the British Raj), CMC Vellore enjoys a reputation of catering to patients from different classes and people from all over the country flock to CMC for treatment. But like everything in this world, CMC Vellore has been steadily moving away from a more patient-centered approach to a wallet-centered approach that suits the hospital's convenience. Many people have been complaining to me about how the staff and nurses treat patients, how careless doctors are, and how little concern is shown to people who approach such places in their hour of need.
A professor from a well known private university in Vellore was brought to CMC in September last year. He seemed to have been suffering from diabetes and was suffering from breathlessness. Inspite of the amounts of money invested in infrastructure, this university had not bothered to equip its ambulances with ventilators and the man was brought to CMC without any oxygen support.
CMC argued with his distraught wife about admitting him immediately into the ICU. Finally, the university's topman called CMC officials and intervened to admit the professor into the ICU. But by then, the damage was done and the man suffered from multi-organ failure and went into a coma. CMC very callously told the wife to stop wasting her time on him since in filmy style "he was beyond their help".
After several lakhs of expenditure, the poor woman transferred the comatose man to her hometown, where ultimately he passed away in mid-November. Of course, this was not only CMC's fault-- all of them came together.
Another acquaintance described how senior doctors lend their names to allow patients to take private appointments with them. But they don't clear their schedules to see the patients--junior doctors see the patients and give half-baked diagnoses and recommendations. One patient underwent all screening to make sure she was fit--BP, blood sugar, heart function, liver function, X rays etc before she wanted to go for surgery to remove an implant from her leg. When everything was fine and she was about to be wheeled into the operation theater, the surgeon announced that they would have to schedule other dates or possibly go somewhere else because these people only had a particular screwdriver, the others needed to remove all the screws from the implant were not available in CMC. When the patient's family asked why they hadn't been told this before when the X rays had been taken so they could have gone somewhere else for a one-shot surgery, the doctor very casually told them that it was not a big issue. Opening someone up under anesthesia, taking out only a few screws, closing them up, having them heal from that initial partial surgery and taking money for a partial operation was not a big issue.
So people need to be careful--all medical professionals have the potential to behave in this irresponsible and stupid manner. In a country like India where the large majority of patients and their families are not very educated or aware of their rights and what is professionally correct, these people exploit patients and treat them like animals to be butchered while making sure that their own fees are first transferred out to hospital accounts. This is why our politicians prefer to go abroad for their treatment. Of course, there is medical tourism where foreigners come to India for somethings: if you can afford those hospitals, maybe you can get away with some caution. But in the rest of these places, one has to be very careful.
