[Resolved]  Apollo Hospital — rip off

Address:

Durg, Chhattisgarh

Respected sir,
I wish to bring to your notice the gross medical misdemenor shown to an unsuspecting patient who had approached the “Appolo Hospital”, Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) on[protected]. I am hypertensive and on medication for the past ten years. On[protected] I felt a little uneasy and went to Appolo which is located closest to my residence. My son accompanied me while my wife chose not to because it was not the first such instance. Earlier I had been to our own company’s (bhilai steel plant) hospital and small nursing homes whichever I found nearest at the moment when I felt such uneasiness. I never spent more than a couple of hours for my blood pressure coming to normal there but this was my first Appolo experience. Here I was asked to lie down and the treatment began. There was nothing new in it and I was expecting to be home in a few hours. In fact I started feeling normal and said so to the treating physicians. To my disappointment I was told that my pulse rate was as high as 127 and I could not be let go but take intensive monitoring in the ICU instead. This had never happened to me before so I believed that my hypertension had aggravated over the time. I was then asked to deposit Rs. 150 and later again Rs. 2000. I was not prepared for this and was feeling perfectly normal. I used my credit card for this eventuality and informed the TPA as well as Appolo to arrange for a cashless treatment. I was confined to the ICU where I was the only “patient” and my son and wife were both forbidden from seeing me since I was too “serious” and needed isolation. My wife and son were “counselled” to be prepared for any “eventuality” but assured that they had spoken to ICICI Lombard who would take care of my medical expenses. Like most insured persons I too had not read the policy terms. I believed everything including my “critical condition” and the “benevolent” ICICI Lombard who were more than willing and kind enough to bear my treatment. Rs. 2150 which I had deposited would be refunded to me upon my discharge, I was told. I was wheeled into the ICU whereas I was capable of hopping into it. Several samples of blood and urine were taken and my body was pierced with needles at many places. The 21 or so hours that I spent in their ICU as the lone patient were full of such painful experiences. Whenever I made a move like reaching for my glasses, one of the two staffers nearly pounced upon me reminding me that I was too “serious” to “strain” myself to such an “extent”. I was even asked to use bed pan which I refused.I was put on many machines whose names I don’t know. Outside, my kin waited in apprehension. The treating physicians always refused to shift me to the ward after glancing at the computer screen over my head and citing my pulse rate which according to them won’t go down 124. I always stole a glance to this computer screen but never found this magic number 124 which had kept me confined to the ICU bed. Until then I had never distrusted the medicos and always held them perhaps in the highest esteem. What had started unfolding now was hitherto unthinkable to me. I was perfectly normal throughout and got inkling of what was being “counselled” to my kin. They were told not to discuss the “seriousness” of my illness with me yet be prepared for “anything”. A psychiatrist was sent to me in the ICU for “counselling” me against alcohol which I don’t take more than twice a week and know very well where to stop. I was by then nearly convinced of Appolo’s motives but decided not to kick up a storm. I finally demanded my discharge irrespective of the consequences to which they informed me that ICICI Lombard would not pay if I was let go before the mandatory 24 hours of continuous hospitalization. I agreed with the rider that I be atleast taken out of this ICU. I had asked for the private room but Appolo informed me that policy provisions entitled me to Rs. 1200 semi private room not the Rs. 2100 worth private one. I was shifted to the semi private room in the afternoon. I saw the true colors of Appolo when I was billed Rs. 13000 upon my discharge. I was told that I had hyper tension pre existing to my policy and was also an “alcoholic” so no claim could be entertained. I then decided to defy the medicos for the first time in my life. I refused to pay the bill and walked out. Suddenly about half a dozen security men and women all in olive uniforms like army personnel but without the name badges appeared as if from nowhere. They surrounded us intimidatingly. The women security guards were perhaps to take care of my wife. I asked my son, a national law school graduate, to switch on the mobile camera and record the event for future evidence. On hearing this they stopped, but locked the exit gate to prevent my car. The security incharge, perhaps named george, started threatening us if we didn’t pay. On knowing that my son is an advocate they let us go but this same man, george, threatened my son again at 7-30 pm well after we were home. Mobile call details of george would substantiate my claim. He went to the extent of threating me with my dismissal from the services of bhilai steel plant where I am employed as an executive.
I request you to take effective measures to save the dignity of the medical profession and restrain Appolo from publishing newspaper ads and erecting hoardings that baffle and mislead the patients.