Apollo Hospital — Horrible service / treatment by the doctors / staff members

Address:

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Enclosing the letter given to Ms Preetha Reddy on 23/05/2014 in person and email and till date waiting for a reply. Her Secretary say she's sp busy and has no time to see these small matters. Kindly guide me what to do. May 23, 2014 Dr. Preetha Reddy Managing director Apollo Hospitals Chennai Dear Sir, Sub: Horrible service / treatment by the doctors / staff members and Claiming refunds and compensation Ref: Patient Name: Komal Agarwal, UHID: AC01.[protected], Room No: 3439 This letter is being sent to your good office since the day my sister in law was admitted in the emergency situation and the problems that we have been facing with the hospital staff and the management. My sister-in-law (Mrs Komal Agarwal) was admitted in hospital on 17/05/2014 at 8:15 PM in emergency ward for pain in her abdomen, which was persisting even after the operation that had taken place on 02/05/14. As per the doctors review she was in good condition but as per her review she had complained of continuous pain. We didn’t know what the reason behind such pain was after regular visit to Dr. Sarat for the same. Upon admitting her in hospital we had realised that due to carelessness and negligence of the doctors at the time of operation on 02/05/14 under the guidance of Dr. Sumana Manohar my sister-in-law had been suffering from pain and on 17/05/2014 due to sudden pain in her abdomen she was admitted on emergency condition. On 17/05/2014 when she was admitted in emergency, there was no proper doctor available for ultra-sound scan and later on after 3 hrs one junior doctor had come and told us, she was just a junior doctor and only has basis knowledge. I want to know why did the hospital staff take such a big risk with a patient life and didn’t care to call for a specialised doctor for ultra-sound scan and kept on giving her pain killer tablets / injections. Next day morning (Sunday Dt: 18/05/2014) when she was shifted to Room No: 2319 which was unclean and had lots of pest problem which was got to the notice of house-keeping but no action was taken by them. The bed provided to the patient was broken and was shown to the house-keeping dept. head and doctors. In the room for the patient, fresh glass and coaster were not provided even after our repeated requests to sisters, house-keeping dept. and room-service people. Only after doctors interference they had provided glass with coaster. From F&B dept. side, when I had ordered for food for the attendant, they had given us used spoon with the food packets and upon questioning the same, the waiter told he is just a pick up boy and has no idea what the restaurant has given. This shows how unhygienic and cheap act the F&B dept. can do for making extra money. On Sunday while making advance payments at the billing counter, I was literally insulted by cashier, who had thrown the card roughly on the table after swiping it on the machine and didn’t have the courtesy to even apologise. This shows how Apollo Hospital is actually insulting people even after taking money from them. On Monday after showing cockroaches in the room to the doctors, house-keeping staff and sisters only then they had actually cleaned the room till then no one was serious about the facts. This shows how hospital like Apollo wants to make money without providing good hygienic conditions for the patience. After cleaning the entire room and changing the bed sheets they had thrown all the used linen in the room itself and after telling the same to house-keeping dept. they didn’t even bother to take it till the next day morning. For our entire problem till Wednesday morning, I had told and also informed Ms. Hemalatha, Ms. Sudha Mohan, Dr. Mathangi and Ms Mureena. But had not received any concrete solution for the same and while addressing the problems to the CEO sec, Ms. Aditi Nair, a new problem had come in my room, the glass provided for water was full of dirt and same was also shown to Ms. Mureena, Ms. Sudha Mohan and was informed to Ms. Aditi Nair. We had observed that from day 1 onwards the doctors were just forcing for another laparoscopy but after our interference only they started with medication and kept her on observation or else they had prepared their mind for laparoscopy. If they would have done it, the career and life of the patient would have got spoilt and then who would have been responsible for this? The doctors are supposed to try on new and modern techniques of treatment other than just going in for operation for which they know better what the drawbacks are. After all this they had shifted her room but after that also we were unhappy since there was no proper care/service from the room-service and house-keeping side, but doctors got very serious and acted well upon the condition and gave a good medication to her. But on Wednesday, we had faced problems with the dietician who had not provided meals on proper timing for the patient due to which she was hungry for almost 4:00 Hrs and I had repeatedly asked the duty doctor; Dr. Depti and sisters for the same who told it will come. Later on upon Dr. Sumana’s visit I had informed her and she told that in every 1 hr she must have fruits and biscuit but it was not provided for nearly 3 hrs and we had to get it from outside and also had informed Ms. Aditi and Ms. Mureena about such problems. All the problems told, were shown to the sisters, House-keeping staff, Ms. Mureena and time to time updated to Ms. Aditi but we had not received any proper reply or justice from them. I had asked for an in-detail apology letter from the CEO for the mistakes, failures, wrongful acts, negligence by the hospital staff and departments and yet waiting for the same but received an apology letter from COO-DMS, Dr Venkita Suresh who has admitted the mistakes happened. (Letter enclosed for your reference) I claim refund of all my payments from the hospital towards treatment from 17/05/2014 till date and for the surgery which was done on 02/05/14. Due to carelessness of doctors my sister in law was the one who had undergone severe pain. If something major would have happened who would have taken the responsibility? Is Apollo here to make only money or treat the patient with good care in good hygienic conditions? I also claim a compensation for Rs. 25.00 Lacs from the hospital for their wrongful acts, negligence, mistakes and failures by the hospital staff and departments, details of which is given in nutshell below: 1. Lack of proper doctors for ultra-sound scan and treatment 2. Lack of pest service – instances shown to the staff members 3. Patient’s bed broken 4. Cleaned glasses not provided – Glasses full of dust particles 5. Used Soiled linen thrown in the room itself 6. Room service providing used spoons and not treating us well 7. Way of approach not good by certain staff members 8. Payment counter, person literally insulting 9. Patient food not provided on time All these things were shown and got to the notice of the staff and concerned depts. time to time but no proper action was initiated until the interference of CEO. After the intervention of CEO also the same problems persisted. So we claim a compensation of Rs. 25.00 Lacs from the management for playing with the life of a patient. Such acts were actually not expected from such a reputed hospital and also after getting to notice not acting on the same made us feel that Apollo is just trying to make money and lacking in its services. Kindly let us know when I can get the refund for the payments made currently and for the operation taken place on 02/05/14 and also the compensation amount. Hope you will look into our problems and sort out the issues and also render justice for our genuine problems and grievances. Awaiting your immediate response with compensation, refund of entire payments made for treatment/operation and also detailed apology letter. Regards Akash Deep Agarwal Ph: +[protected]