In May 2007, I had to take my father to Rockland in emergency. He was in bed at home for quite some time but then he had suddenly stopped responding. Being a retired ITO, he was a beneficiary of CGHS i.e. Central Government Health Scheme. Hence we were entitled to go to Rockland and have free medical care. And what a horrifying experience we had.
He was taken in daycare attended by an unfriendly sister or perhaps she was a junior doctor. After a while, a grim faced senior doctor came, observed my father, exchanged a few words with that sister and left the room without saying a word to us or even looking at us. Then this nurse told us that my father needs ICU care and since there is no room, we should take him somewhere else. We were dumbfounded. We had got him there with great difficulty and to take him somewhere else was not easy.
We requested her to do something but she refused. We went to the reception counter and were told the same thing. When we asked where could we possibly take him in this condition and pat came the reply,” take him to Safdarjung!" It was very clear that since we were from CGHS, entitled to free medical service, we were useless for them as their motto is “suck the patient for money” and not "we care" as they claim on their website.
We panicked and were desperate. My mother who is an elderly lady, well above senior citizen age insisted that we are entitled to medical service here and we are not going anywhere. All hell broke loose after that. The chap in white coat at the reception suddenly barked (pardon me but that is the best word to describe his behaviour!),” Language madam language. If I come to my language, I will make you sit in the ambulance and won’t even ask where you have to go". He spoke in such threatening voice and seemed to be ready to pounce on us ladies any minute. While his fellow colleagues just watched the scene silently with pleasure. Then he glared at my mother and barked again,"Mataji aap wahaan ja ke beth jao!" My poor mother did as she was told. We were all red with anger and humiliation, at a total loss for words and helpless. Had we given them a packet of Rs. 2 lakh or something, perhaps then they would have attended us with their plastic smiles on.
Meanwhile the same sister kept asking us when are we taking the patient away. When we got the car at the door and went to the daycare to get my unconscious father, she presented the bills and asked us to pay that and reimburse medicines first. Was she sleeping before that? Another 45 minutes were wasted in clearing bills and medicines though we were entitled to free service.
NEXT DAY MY FATHER PASSED AWAY....
So at Rockland we lost our father and our self respect.They failed to give medical treatment to my father and instead of feeling sorry or having sympathy for us, they did not hesitate in humiliating us.
I complained via feedback column on Rockland’s website. No reply! I complained to Dr. Ramadoss the health minister via his email id given on CGHS website for grievances, my email returned undelivered. I gave a written complaintat the office of CGHS, they sent the same to Rockland, asking for an explanation as to why such a treatment was given (I received a CC from CGHS). This was sent by CGHS in October2007. Till date no reply from Rockland. No time to reply after all they are toobusy making money.And then they say "we care".
I came upon an old article on internet that says:
”RocklandHospital, New Delhi: The hospital has a five-member redressal committee for attending to the complaints of patients. The hospital’s complaint box is opened on a weekly basis to address the issues”.
What a joke! This so called 5-member redressal committee does not even reply to feed back on their own website or to the govt.
The staff at Rockland is highly ruthless, uncaring, unfriendly, inhuman, having no respect for senior citizens or ladies. Why can’t they understand that no body comes to such a place for pleasure. If they can not understand our state of mind, our pain then they might as well go back to working at butcher shops from where they seem to have come. It appears this hospital is meant only for animals as only animals work here.
Memories of the day still haunt me and I curse myself for having taken my father to Rockland, the butcher shop, to die!
Was this information helpful?
I agree about the ruthless attitude at Rockland.
I remember, In 2010 my wife was expecting a child and she being a Delhi Got employee comes under DGHS (similar to CGHS).
My wife was 3 months pregnant and she had bleeding started. We rushed her to Rockland at 11 oclock in night.
We were shocked to know that in emergency (day care) no doctor was available to take care and for 30-45 minutes my wife was taken care by nurse only.
When we raise this question at the reception, they called and one male doctor came and he gave an injection to stop the bleeding.
Thats it and after that he vanished.
I was wondering what kind of Day care is it???
Moral of the story: If you have options, money then better go to some other hospitals in case of emergency.
And one more thing I noticed gradually the quality of services at Rockland hospital is degrading day by day.