Recession??----NAH, not to these Private Hospitals

The other day, on a weekend ,I and my friend were at a restaurant which was inhabited sparcely at about 1 p.m. in the afternoon, and my friend was lamenting the impact of recession on the "eating-out" habits of people, amongst others. Well, I guess each one of us has become too conscious of the gloomy impact of recession in every walk of our lives to be thinking of other reasons for any happening or event. But guess what, there are a few "blessed" ones who need not worry about this. Oh, one may ask who they are ? Well, here you go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was this woman who had been to a particular private nursing home in Chennai to confirm whether she had conceived. Well, by the time the reports of the tests arrived, the Doctor was ready with the bill and the consultation fee. Now, one may ask what is strange about this? That is the interesting part. The bill and the consultation fee amount was decided after asking the woman whether she was a working woman, a housewife or was she in the IT sector. When this incident was narrated by the woman, I was shocked. I had rather innocently and ignorantly assumed that hospitals charge fee for a particular test or a treatment and was sadly enlightened with the fact that it is the working or non-working status/belonging to the IT sector that determines the fees to be charged from the patients, and not the test/treatment cost itself. That is when I started thinking about the guidelines on fees charged by private hospitals and the nature of their operations, in general.

There are certain unpleasant facts about private hospitals in our country that require a closer scrutiny. Firstly, it is a misconception that private hospitals alone can provide quality treatment to the patients. In fact, the condition and the quality of care in these hospitals requires a lot to be desired. This is a direct consequence of the lack of regulation and monitoring . Secondly, we do not have any statistics available on the various private hospitals , and the categorization of the same, from the smallest nursing homes to the largest, in our country. Thirdly, there is no information on the infrastructure, qualified doctors and nurses , and the quality of treatment in a majority of these hospitals. And coming to the fees, there are no regulations or guidelines for the amount to be charged by these hospitals. There are a number of hospitals running in dilapitated houses, under unhygienic conditions, putting the patients' lives at risk. Alas, some are run in the form of proprietorship. How many times would we have not considered running to an Apollo than to a nursing home in our quite residential area? Definitely, we do not trust our lives with them. And how many times would have a number of people not delayed getting a routine check-up done because they would have to shell out some 2.5k for the same? Not all are as lucky as we "corporate fellas" with medical reimbursements to such an extent.

What is it that we can do in such a scenario? For starters, we can report such incidents, as the one mentioned earlier, to the concerned authorities so as to enable suitable action against the miscreants, as such deeds by the hospitals/doctors are nothing less of crime. The woman, who had shared the incident with me has already reported the same to the concerned authorities. Next, we need to persuade the concerned Governments to start recording and documenting all the information pertaining to the private hospitals. There is also a need for the creation of guidelines and the regulation of fees charged at these hospitals, on the basis of national and regional criteria. The balance sheets and the records of these hospitals should be audited. Stringent action should be taken against hospitals which do not follow the quality guidelines and utilise the services of unqualified doctors and nurses. The doctors have a much more important role to play. Similar to the enthusiasm they show in expressing empathy and solidarity towards their fellow doctors when they are attacked by some aggrieved relatives of a dying patient, they also should press for the streamlining of rules and regulations for monitoring the private hospitals. I guess that such an action on their part would do a lot to improve their image in the eyes of the general public, and instill confidence in a layman to go to a nursing home next door, than always relying his/her life with the Apollos and the Wockhardts , and ending up paying exhorbitant amounts in the form of fees.

Let us wake up to this call and do what little we can and hope that the hospitals do not lose out on their raison d’etre’, "Cause recession or no recession, time, age and illness wait for none!!!!"