Max Hospital — this complaint was sent on 27th july and I have had no response!

Address:

New Delhi, Delhi

Dear Sirs,

I am writing with deep regret today to inform you of the abysmal services I have experienced in this hospital.

My name is Charlotte, I am a 28 year old female, and arrived in India 8 days ago with my boyfriend Tom. We are both from the UK.

6 days ago in Varanasi I began to experience swollen eyes and a puffy face, which over the course of 24 hours developed into a very angry looking rash all over my face except for my forehead and nose. We arrived in New Delhi on 20th July and decided to seek medical advice as I was beginning to feel very unwell and suffering from severe chills and fever. We visited a Max clinic opposite the hostel we were staying at (Madpackers, Delhi) and I was sent to a skin doctor, despite asking for a physician. I was provided with almost 4, 000 rupees of medicines including antibiotics and a skin cream that burnt when I applied it just once.

We went back to the hostel and I slept for an hour, and woke not being able to get out of bed. My body was trembling and I had vomited, I had never felt so ill. My face was swollen and sore, I almost called an ambulance but managed to get into a taxi and went to the Max super hospital.

Upon arrival I was checked over immediately, great! I thought at the time. Doctors and nurses seemed eager to help which relieved me because I’d been so weak, stressed and worried. I’d barely eaten for 3 days either due to lack of appetite and fatigue.

I was sent to be observed over 4-6 hours initially, and given an IV antibiotic, a steroid injection and an allergy medicine, with 3 consecutive bags of saline.

The staff were fairly attentive and friendly during those few hours. A doctor came to see me and suggested I stayed in and admitted myself for the night because my face was not improving at all even with the steroid injection. Not ideal but I was willing to do whatever the doctor thought was best, I asked how much it would cost and he told me around 10, 000 rupees. I agreed.

4 hours later, I had no paperwork, more antibiotics and fevers, and nobody seemed to know what was going on. During those 4 hours I asked for a drink, to 3 different staff members, and nobody bought me even a water. They seemed hell bent on giving me as many IVS and saline drips as possible. I questioned the amount they were giving me and how they would help as I was not looking or feeling any different, to which I was just told “it will make you better”, and told that I would be moving very soon to a 24 hour doctor in different ward (admission). This was followed by multiple blood tests, a urine sample and numerous other IVs.

It was around 8am when the night staff changed over and the day staff arrived. I spent two hours trying to get someone’s attention to remove my empty saline drip from my hand, so I could go to the bathroom and also have a drink, and ask why I was still in the observation area.

Two staff members looked right at me as I waved and said “excuse me”, only feet away from my bed, held their eye contact with me and proceeded to ignore me completely. I was feeling pretty low and was alone at this point, I had sent my boyfriend back to the hostel to sleep and try and arrange details with our travel insurance provider.

I went to the bathroom after removing the empty drip myself, as I was desperate, and I asked for something to drink. Again this fell on deaf ears and the man at the desk just looked at me and told me to sit back on my bed.

A drink never came. I asked another staff member from housekeeping if he could ask someone to get me a drink, and he agreed and said he would send someone over. Nobody came. May I add that every single other person on that observation ward was seen as soon as the day staff arrived, expect for me. New patients came in and out whilst I was waiting patiently some 12 hours after being checked in. I was also the only non Indian citizen in the room, and felt it was on purpose that I was being ignored. The only staff who came to me in the first 2 hours was the ward manager/doctor and the previous night shift manager, so she could tell him what was wrong with me, he said to get him if I needed anything and I didn’t see him again.

This is where it got upsetting. A man from admissions came down to me after I had asked another nurse when I was supposed to be moving, i had been waiting for hours with no answers for any tests, being pumped with expensive medicines and feeling quite vulnerable.

He was rude from the very first words he said to me. He said I needed to pay 50, 000 now for the admission and they would move me soon. I said “oh, 50, 000? Sorry, the doctor last night told me it would be around 10, 000, I will need to contact my travel insurance provider to check that as it’s quite a lot higher than I was I initially told.” He didn’t believe me and said “no, that’s wrong, it is never 10, 000, it is 50, 000 and you must pay now” again I mentioned I needed to contact my insurer, and he got frustrated with me, basically called me a liar and said that doctors don’t have the authority to tell patients the price of admissions, it must come from admissions only, and the doctor did not say that. I told him I understood that it was not 10, 000 however that it what I was told, I just needed to make a call. He stood up, shook his head, laughed at me and muttered something. I asked for some time to speak to the insurer and said I didn’t want to be admitted until I had some information/advice. He seemed very annoyed. I felt so small. He was really patronising and I cried after he left purely out of embarrassment.

After this, I was called for an x-ray, I questioned to the nurse why I needed the x-ray as I was woken up and being wheeled off for it in a hurry and nobody had mentioned it to me previously, no answer. We got to the x-Ray department and I asked the radiographer, and he said it was to check for infection. I replied that was fine I just wanted to know as I didn’t have any chest problems. I also enquired how much it would cost and he said “why does it matter, you need it and you should have insurance” I replied that I did, but I just wanted to know so I could advise them of the treatment I was having prior to admission too. He replied that it was around 500 rupees.

He completed the chest x-ray, and when finished he started laughing. I have a piercing in my breast and he found it hilarious, bought in a friend (not in any hospital uniform but he may have worked there) and showed him the x Ray, they both laughed to my face. The friend said “is it fixed in?” I replied yes, and that I wasn’t willing to remove it if it didn’t affect the xray. He said that was fine and they continued to laugh at me. I was so embarrassed. I’ve had x rays in hospitals at home and never been made to feel embarrassed in such a way. By this point I was in silent tears at my bed for the next hour.

After that hour, whilst being pumped with more drugs and saline, that didn’t seem to be doing anything at all, my boyfriend called and said that the travel insurance company required the hospital to send my medical record with any treatments to them via email, and they would process a claim immediately and try to arrange payment to the hospital, or reimbursement to us if we paid.

I requested this at the desk to the same man who told me to sit on my bed earlier in the morning, and he shrugged and pointed at a junior doctor (who was the only relatively nice member of staff I encountered by the way, I wish I’d got her name). She said she would arrange for someone from the correct department to come and see me and send the email, no problem.

She left, and I was still on the phone to my boyfriend at the time relaying that it would be fine to do what the insurer had requested.
At that moment, the man from admissions appeared, leaned on the desk next to me and said “NO. You will pay 50, 000 now and go to admission, we will not send that email for you, it is against our policy.” I asked why, as it had just been agreed, and he said it’s a UK insurer and the hospital will just refuse to speak to them. He said I had to find a local Indian insurer, and then go though then to speak to my insurer. I confirmed that it was worldwide cover and they knew the hospital, and could arrange a claim. He again told me no, with a very smug look on his face and hand on his waist, again making me feel awful. He told me again it wouldn’t happen, and that I needed to pay 50, 000, stabbing his finger at the amount written on the paper. I hadn’t signed anything for admission as the papers never arrived during the night and then I was hit with the bombshell that the price was 5 times higher than I originally thought. He walked off, and told a nurse not to allow the email.

I relayed this to my boyfriend on the phone, and he told my insurer, they said they would call the hospital themselves.

Half an hour later I had a doctor at my bed demanding to know why the insurer hadn’t called yet, I didn’t know as I hadn’t heard anything. He was very annoyed and said “you need to pay NOW. I will give you 30 minutes.”

I had no idea what to do as I couldn’t call the insurer myself nor get hold of my boyfriend as he was on the phone to them still.

I felt so pressured, and vulnerable, still felt ill, albeit a little less in pain. The junior doctor was nice to me, bought over a cream for my face to sooth the itching and burning, I refused at first because it was fragranced and my face was so sore, however she insisted it would provide some relief. I took the advice and let another nurse apply it. It burned my skin, I was told it was normal. She applied it all over my rash and told me to let it sit and dry. It dried, for half an hour and it felt terrible on my skin. I asked how I could remove it and she gave me some flimsy paper tissues and said to use water. My skin is blistered, dry, peeling, cracked, you name it, it’s broken skin. Try gently wiping a thick dry cream from your entire face with a tissue that is falling apart. It was sticking to my face and I asked for help, I didn’t get any. I was told to leave it and it would just come off with the scabs when my face healed. My face was red raw from the burning of the cream, I had barely touched it with the tissues due to them not doing a thing to remove the paste it had created, and from the pain the cream had caused. The rash had also by this point begun to spread down my neck. It was getting worse, and I was still being pumped with the same drugs.

I checked one of the bottles of ‘steroid’ and it was labelled sodium chloride. I knew this was used as dilution for some injections, but questioned why I had one for every single injection, along with all of the saline. They said it was necessary so I didn’t get abdominal pain. I feel it wasn’t necessary with each one and was more a way of racking my expenses up.

At this time, numerous people were coming in asking me when I was leaving, I had already asked to pay my bill, wait for my insurer to call, and to be discharged, I had spoken to my boyfriend and made the sad but desperate decision to cut our trip short and fly home to the UK for treatment. A doctor told me I couldn’t leave, I had to go to admission, and if I refused then I would have to pay a fee. I said if someone needed my bed, as people were trying to get me out, where should I go? He didn’t answer, and left the room. The admissions man came back, smug look on his face again, and told me if I left against doctors orders I wouldn’t be able to use my insurance. I answered that he wouldn’t allow them to be used anyway, and he said I had to pay now. I told him again I just wanted to speak with them, I didn’t know why they hadn’t called yet, and that I was flying home, fully aware I was leaving against medical advice - not because I was being stubborn, but purely because I felt neglected and needed medical treatment that would actually help me, at this point I was worse than when I arrived, and felt bullied.

My boyfriend arrived and I was in tears again, he was furious at the way I had been spoken to. I felt so broken by this point, I can usually stand my ground in a respectful way (I am a senior compliance manager for a national uk debt company and handle complaints, conflicts and other complex issues every day at work, politely and respectfully) but this had left me totally wiped out, upset and just shattered. I had managed 20 minutes of sleep during my stay, no food (I was offered curry and rice for breakfast by a kitchen staff member but I had no appetite). I hadn’t eaten much for days.

He had the same conversations as I had with various staff members as above. A nurse came to give me more medicine for my ‘fever’ as I was burning she said, insisting I took it. I felt ok at this point, I asked her to check my temperature first before giving me anything else, she did and it confirmed I did not have a fever. She seemed annoyed that she couldn’t give me the drugs.

Eventually after 2 further hours, the nurses agreed to discharge me, not before telling me my face looked much better than before. I had been taking photographs every few hours since the rash started, and confirmed it was actually significantly worse, and more painful since the cream was applied. The nurses looked at the photo and disagreed, but they couldn’t have looked more unsure! They knew it was a bad outcome and that I was now stuck with it on my sore skin. There is no way it was better!

I have the photographs I have mentioned above, plus numerous other ones for your perusal should you wish to see them.

My overall experience of the hospital was terrible. I’ve never felt so neglected, and helpless, I felt discriminated against for my race, everyone else was seen to and answered immediately, I was left alone during the day, begging for someone to help me, give me an answer. I had no idea what all of the test results were, what the drugs were supposed to do exactly, nothing. I spent hours in that bed, crying, feeling scared and very stressed.

It was embarrassing, and I’m out of pocket by almost £300, for nothing but a worse situation.

I am so angry, even more so that I don’t think my insurer can ever cover me for the losses. I feel I was ripped off, given unnecessary amounts of weak diluted medicines, saline, and numerous samples taken with no answers. I was spoken to like an ###, I felt bullied and was trapped. They even refused to remove my canular in my hand until the discharge papers were signed and everything was paid for, as if I was going to leave without paying. It was painful after being in there for so long. The staff had my passport information and I was hardly in any state nor would never even bother trying to leave without paying! They made me feel like a criminal.

I really thought you ought to know, and I hope you can do something about this with the hospital/appropriate establishment. I hope it was a one off case and that others aren’t subjected to such treatment, I’ve never felt like they made me feel.

I had to go back to my hostel looking and feeling terrible, didn’t sleep that night and booked my flight back to the UK the following morning, for just 4 hours later. I was in a desperate situation and my boyfriend and I are set to lose around £1, 500 in total for our next months booked travel/accommodation/plus hospital fees paid.
It’s not all about money, although it’s a massive shame. All I wanted was someone to help me, relieve the pain and help me to get better - and it seemed promising at the start but went downhill to the point where I actually felt bullied.

My face is still terrible, I look like a burns victim, it is painful, swollen, and sore. As soon as I got home on Sunday I went straight from the airport to St James University Hospital in Leeds, where they advised me to stay the night.

They assessed me, didn’t apply any creams or give me any medication apart from some paracetamol as they didn’t know what the issue was yet. They were shocked at the medical reports from Delhi, and laughed at how bad they were, the drugs were pointless and expensive, they had no idea what they were doing. The hospital in Delhi began giving me all sorts of drugs without knowing just to make me pay!

St James booked me an appointment for Thursday this week for a dermatologist, and gave me Flucloxacillin antibiotics - which are working well. I cannot believe so many doctors could not do something that simple in Delhi!

It’s a huge shame to cut our trip short by 6 weeks, and to miss the rest of what India has to offer, we were due to stay until 15th August and then fly to Abu Dhabi and so on, but due to the money we have lost we now can not afford to return to India because the flights are so expensive from the UK. I really had no choice but to come home though, I feel it was so unfair of them to treat me the way they did, and cost us out once in a lifetime opportunity. We will likely never have this amount of time out of work together again to go somewhere like India, and we only got to spend a few days there. Had the hospital assessed me properly this would not have happened and we would still be there now.

Having to return early also means we have to stay with family as our house is being let out to a tenant until our official return date of 27th August, and we are truly devastated. I also could be permanently scarred physically from the treatment they gave me, and it’s been giving me nightmares this week, I cannot believe this has happens.

We are so upset and disappointed.

Please can you look into this, I would really appreciate your help and thoughts on this matter.

Yours faithfully,
Charlotte Hewerdine

Sent from my iPhone

Photos.
1) arrival in hospital

2) leaving hospital the following morning

3) burns the next day, from the cream at the hospital in New Delhi

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