On 11th September my grandfather went sick all of a sudden and we took him to KHM hospital, Annanagar. The doctors did an initial diagnosis and gave medications and advised us to consult NEUROLOGIST immediatey as they suspected some stroke.
On 12th September morning his condition worsened and he was unable to talk and intake food and had two episodes of vomiting (black vomit).
We called upon Billroth hospital and enquired whether Dr. Shankar Subramanian (Neuro physician) is available for emergency consultation to which they responded saying yes and sent an ambulance at our request to our residence.
We moved him to hospital immediately where he was initially taken to emergency for initial diagnosis and was being monitored by a gastroenterologist. They suspected internal bleeding (due to black vomit) and suggested admission and further scans.
We repeatedly asked to see the neuro physician before admitting him but to no avail and agreed to admit due to criticality.
Day 2 on 13th September we again asked to see the neuro physician but yet again we did not get to see him.
Day 3, the 14th September the neuro surgeon finally met us and summed up his condition literally like this - " There is blood clot, medication & physiotherapy will be given" not a word more or less.
Day 4, the 15th September we got a call early in the morning and were asked to rush to hospital immediately as he was unconscious and not responding well. The icu doctors advised to put him on ventilator which we did not agree to and once again requested to see the neuro physician.
We were asked to wait and we did from morning to night but once again we didn't get to meet him.
Day 5, the 16th September after using recommendations and references we finally got to meet the physican who finally explained us the entire problem and then suggested ventilator is must.
Now to summarize, from day 1 to day 5 we got to see the neuro physician only twice despite of our repeated request to see him so that we could take a informed decision for the patient.
All this while the hopital was only busy in making bills for us. We were billed a total of 3.3 lakhs and on dictating our ordeal to the hospital management we were given a dicount of 15000.
There were multiple discrepancies in the bills. We were charged for ventilator when we had not consented for it and neither was the same administered.. When we confronted the team they said that we had some non invasive ventilator in the night. Whereas the bill mentioned it being used it in the day. Their written records and bills did not match.
Finally they changed the bill and renamed the Ventilator charge to some other equipment.
The hopital kept billing medicines of approx 50k everyday. Items like masks, gloves (50 qty daily), water bottles, thermometer, kidney tray, patient kit and every other possible expenses were added to the list.
When we were complaining about the non availability of doctor to the management, they kept defending that doctor has been visiting regularly. Luckily we had an approximate bill which showed the visits as of 15th Sep and respective charges which clearly indicated that the neuro physician has visited only once (which was also true). On pointing this they blatantly told us that the bill hasn't been updated.
Not sure why was this alone missed and the consultations of all other doctors were properly updated.
Finally to cover up the loop they included an additional visit from the doctor in the final bill...
We had to run errands throughout the time to just seek opinion from the doctor for whom we initially came to this hospital...
Finally we decided to shift the patient on two reasons.
One is the lack of hospital's care and responsibilities towards the patient
Second the inflated bills we were charged on daily basis.
Every patient has the right to be treated and be consulted by the doctor of their choice but Billroth hospitals has miserably failed on this front.
No hard feelings. Just the bare truth. Have all evidence to substantiate the above claims.
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