When Healthcare Kills

Not every story in the world depresses me but the cost of dying in India does and the heartlessness of hospital managements and doctors only add to it. A baby’s death and a hospital’s refusal to hand over his final remains to his grieving parents does not shake anyone. But I say it should! It should shake us up from our lethargy, lack of consciousness, the mute agreement to make payments before any treatment is given and most importantly it should shake the government and revolutionise India’s healthcare.

I don’t know where the basis of ‘money first, treatment later’ principle lies but I have only come across it in India. In most other “big economies” it is treatment first, payment later, as it should be. In May 2012 I was very sick and was admitted in a private hospital in Johannesburg. I had my medical aid card on me and was swiftly admitted with no questions asked. They didn’t want to know anything from me except what ails me. And yes, there was absolutely no mention of money. I was not asked to pay for anything at all, not for food or medicines or the bed. I was not asked to foot my bill when I was discharged. I received the bill in my email a week later when I was able to conduct financial transactions and understand the cost of the treatment. I was also given two weeks to make the entire payment.

Why can’t our Indian healthcare system be a bit more human? I have two more personal stories to share. One traumatic and the other disturbing. I was asked to pay a huge amount when my father lay dying in the casualty ward  of a private hospital in Hyderabad. I will never forget the face of the doctor who instructed me to make a payment first. He said: “I can only help your father if you pay.” So I blindly paid because my father’s life mattered more to me at that moment than having an argument with an inhuman doctor about the ethics of human life. Two hours later, the same doctor informed me that my father had passed away and since they used hospital equipment to revive him I need to pay the complete bill to take him home. If doctors do not use hospital equipment to treat patients, what do they use? Again, I blindly paid, without once questioning anyone. The next day when I went to collect his death certificate I was made to run around the entire hospital administration hierarchy and asked to pay a fee. This time I refused. I created a scene. My grief gave way to anger and I threatened court action. The hospital management saw that I was in a position to afford a lawyer and let me go with the death certificate. Hence, when I read such stories, I simply don’t like it.  

This month my uncle was admitted at Yashodha Hospital, which calls itself the best hospital in Hyderabad, but it just isn’t. My uncle could not get any treatment even after having medical insurance until he paid an admission fee. After undergoing painful surgeries, he was discharged but not allowed to go home. He was discharged at 11 in the afternoon and allowed to go home at 11 in the night. I cannot imagine the pain and fatigue he must have felt sitting in a chair in the lobby those long hours because there were too many papers to sign and too much money to pay. He has to return there this week and I dread to imagine the suffering he will go through. 

How do we not realise that our healthcare kills us? We have all faced this inhuman practice before. We have had to buy injections, medications of all sorts, from hospital pharmacies along with paying for the medications they do not inform us about. We have all subjected ourselves to bland, low quality hospital food and unhygienic toilets in the form of a patient or a visitor.

Can you blame me if I have no respect for hospital management or doctors in India? They do not seem like normal people with normal feelings or normal humanity. Why do we treat them like gods when they cannot even behave like humans? I have seen doctors refer to books and the Internet to tell me what ails me. Thank you, I can do that for myself.

But should I blame the doctors, the insurers or the money hungry hospitals? Do we need a change? Our current healthcare system needs to be eliminated head first. Isn’t it time to install a new, more human, more patient and finance friendly healthcare in place to match our economic growth or is this just the story of the common man and this is how we must continue. What do you think? Do tell me your thoughts. Maybe we can petition for a much needed change together.