Fortis Hospital - a mixed bag under a glossy veneer!

Recently one of of my Uncles fell seriously ill. We rushed him to Fortis Hospital in the Indian National Capital Region - which our extended family had adopted after suffering from blatant profit-chasing and lack of care at Apollo - a high profile hospital in the Indian capital city. I was surprised that such was the demand for healthcare, that Apollo was getting away with utter non-sense. They were off in my mother's height and hemoglobin count by a non-trivial amount in a regular health check-up. Many other such instances forced us to look elsewhere - and we adopted the neighboring Fortis - which did a decent job in most situations. However, I was surprised by what they did this time.


The Doctor who was going to operate my Uncle told us that the operation would happen the next day. My cousins went to the billing department, and asked how much they needed to pay. The billing department told them that they had no news. This happened multiple times. We were very uncomfortable with the situation and knew it was coming, and it came! At 11pm that night, they called my cousins and asked them to deposit Rs 200,000 by 8am and were uncouth enough to add that the operation won't happen without that money being deposited (we can figure that out - you moron!). Who walks around with 200,000 in pocket?

The next day the operation which was scheduled to happen at 1100, happened at 1600. While, the excuse that there was a critical operation which ran over was quite acceptable, we didn't really believe them.

After the operation, the doctor told us that the patient was perfectly find and would be kept in the regular ward. In the evening when we went to visit our Uncle, they had planted him in ICU without doctor's orders, and obviously charging us happily for that.

When my cousin raised a ruckus, they moved him to a ward bed. Unfortunately, this time again they failed the integrity test. Fortis had charged us for exclusive room, and they transferred my Uncle to a ward with 7 beds. Again screaming was required to set things right.

When I recently visited my Uncle, he asked for water. I rang the buzzer in the room, no one turned up. I rang it again, and no response came. Frustrated, I stepped out and politely asked a nurse for water. She went about her business and I waited and waited. Finally, I let go in style, and a grudging nurse brought water.

As I walked back home that evening, I was just saddened to think if that was Fortis, what poorer patients who end up at Government Hospitals suffer. Only when one was smart enough to audit and bold enough to scream, he could get things done right at Fortis. At many government hospitals - doctors just don't turn up. There is no doubt in my mind that Fortis is a giant leap forward in Indian healthcare. However, there is also no doubt in my mind that they are miserably failing their stated aim of providing compassionate healthcare. Their claim to fame now is that they are better than Apollo in some ways. Poor standard indeed!