Kerala: Many hospitals lack healing touch

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Many private hospitals in the state are exploiting the ignorance of the people who go there hoping to get better treatment. The doctors in the so-called super-specialty hospitals not only fail to properly diagnose the disease but also prescribe unwanted and expensive surgeries. It is only a lucky few who seek a second opinion and manage to salvage their health and money. S. Dipu, 40, a last-grade employee at Aravukkad high school at Punnapra, Alappuzha, who suffered a fall from a bus, consulted a doctor at a leading super-specialty hospital in Kochi.

An orthopaedician advised him shoulder bone surgery and asked him to remit Rs 1.5 lakh. Dipu's wife, K. P. Minimol, a homemaker, said, "we could not pay Rs  1.5 lakh for the surgery and hence took him to Alappuzha medical college hospital. The orthopaedician there prescribed a few tablets for the pain and asked him to keep his hand in a sling for a couple of days sans any bandage. Within a week, he was all right," said Minimol. Five months later, he developed a clot in the brain. "We went to the same super-specialty hospital in Kochi on November 17. After taking a CT scan, the neuro- surgeon asked Dipu to undergo an emergency neuro- surgery," she said.

The staff told her to remit Rs  75,000 as advance and the remaining Rs 1.25 lakh the next day. However, Dipu's cousin who works in the health care sector sought a second opinion at another private hospital where the neuro-surgeon doubted the surgery cost. Thereafter, Dipu was admitted to the second hospital and he underwent a keyhole surgery for subdural haemorrhage on his brain. The cost came to a mere Rs 12, 000-plus. Dipu was discharged from the hospital on Thursday after six days of stay in the hospital which cost him only Rs  20,000, including the surgery cost. Dipu is looking forward to rejoining his duty on Wednesday.

Dipu's mother Omana Sivanandan wondered whether the hospital was trying to exploit her son because he came from a village. The doctor who treated him at the second hospital expressed surprise over the rate in the first hospital. "It is a huge difference. The procedure is the same, but in other cities also there are different surgery rates," he said. DC has confirmed that hospitals in the state charge different rates for the surgery. A leading neuro-surgeon at St. James Hospital in Chalakudy, Dr. P. K. Manoj, told DC that the majority of the private hospitals were exploiting the ignorance of the people. "The hospitals in the private sector have failed to address such issues. There are some patients who demand MRI scan at the rate of Rs  8,000 and Rs  12,000 when the actual charge is only Rs 3, 000. They feel that if they don't do the higher rate MRI scans, they will not get a comprehensive report," said Dr. Manoj.

Authority needed to regulate pvt hospitals

Medical experts say that there should be a statutory body with powers to pull up the erring private hospitals over the disparity in surgery costs. The Indian Medical Association doesn't have any right to regulate the charges in private hospitals. Doctors feel that more cases like that of S. Dipu will happen due to the mushrooming of private medical colleges. Dr. K. Sasidharan, BC Roy national award winner and an honorary senior consultant urologist at KIMS here, told DC that hospitals charged various rates. In Dipu's case, the subdural haematoma could be drained out by drilling a hole in the scalp.

"This is a routine procedure which does not require a lot of time. The amount quoted by the first hospital was exorbitant. We require a statutory body with powers to pull up erring private hospitals," said Dr. Sasidharan. He added that the patient's 'right to know' was suppressed in most cases. The required information is not provided to the patient and the discharge summary carries the bare minimum details. "It all depends on the 'pedigree' of the patient," he said.

A prominent lady doctor told DC that most of the corporate hospitals give targets to their doctors forcing them to go for unwanted tests and surgeries. She alleged that there was a nexus between health insurance companies and corporate hospitals helping the latter to mint money. Dr. Jayant Thomas Mathew, professor and head of nephrology, Amala Medical College, Thrissur, said that in the case of Dipu, nothing untoward happened because of his luck. "If something had happened to the patient, it would have been a different ball game altogether," said Dr. Jayant.