[Resolved]  Thyrocare — Bad and dangerous service by Thyrocare

Address:

Thane, Maharashtra

I called up Thyrocare (M: [protected]/[protected]) on May 9, 2014 to schedule an at home collection of blood under your “Aarogyam” Complete Health Checkup plan. I spoke to Ms. Kamla (M: [protected]) from Thyrocare’s Franchisee named Niramay Pathlab (address: Office No. B11, Sion Shivaji Nagar CHS, Bhaudaji Road Extension, Sion, Mumbai – 400022). Ms. Kamla assured me that they (Niramay Pathlab) were the authorized blood collection agents of Thyrocare and that their representative will collect blood samples from me and my mother at 9 am on May 10, 2014 from my residence. Ms. Kamla also asked me to pay by cheque to the collecting representative at the time of drawing the blood sample. I asked for the package of 61 tests (INR 1799) for myself and 84 tests (INR 4299) for my mother. The representative of Niramay Pathlab, Mr. Faizan (M: [protected]), came at my house to collect blood at 8:45 am on May 10, 2014. Here are the glaring issues which I and my mother faced: · Mr. Faizan refused to wear any gloves while drawing venal blood from us. He said, “Mujhay gloves nahi jamta” (I am not comfortable wearing gloves). · Mr. Faizan did not disinfect his hands either by washing or any other way. Just a minute ago, before entering our house, he had used his hands to take off his shoes outside our door · Mr. Faizan took out of bottle of disinfecting alcohol from his bag but DID NOT use it to wipe our skin with cotton before drawing blood · Mr. Faizan drew venal blood from me and my mother and put them in glass vials. These vials he then put inside his cloth back pack. He had NO icebox or any other sterile, temperature control container for safe transport of the blood samples · Mr. Faizan had travelled by Thane Municipality bus from the railway station to reach my house and went back the same way – so there is no chance that the blood samples were being protected in a temperature controlled hygienic environment before reaching Thyrocare laboratories at Turbhe · Mr. Faizan informed me that he had other collections to do before taking all the samples to Niramay Pathlab at Sion. From there, he informed me, all the samples would go to Thyrocare laboratories at Turbhe · Mr. Faizan asked me to write out one cheque of amount INR 6098 (INR 4299 + INR 1799) in the name of Niramay Pathlab. I called up Niramay Pathlab (M: [protected]/[protected]) to reconfirm the spelling of their name on the cheque · Mr. Faizan wrote and signed two receipts with the logo of Thyrocare (RC 10322888 and RC[protected] for the payment. On the receipts he did not mention that the mode of payment was by a cheque · Mr. Faizan assured me that I shall get the Thyrocare reports soon after 12 noon on May 10, 2014 on my email. He wrote my email id – ([protected]@gmail.com) – on his receipt book · I texted my residential address and the blood sample bar codes (S 38678350 B 38239572 and S[protected] to Thyrocare Turbhe (M: [protected]) to complain about this serious deficiency of service while collecting blood I received a call from Thyrocare Customer Service cell, Turbhe (T:[protected] at about 2:30 pm on May 10, 2014. The person identified himself as Rahul, an employee of Thyrocare Customer Service, Turbhe. I related all that I have mentioned above. Mr. Rahul agreed with me that the procedures followed by Mr. Faizan were highly irregular and that Mr. Rahul would immediately forward my concerns to Thyrocare’s Complaints department. Mr. Rahul mentioned that there should have been sterile procedures followed by the blood collecting representative which were not followed in this case. I have the following disturbing questions to ask Thyrocare: · Are you or any of your representatives even aware of the serious risks that you are placing your customers by following such bad practices? HIV and Hepatitis infections, not to mention other types of infections, can easily be transmitted by the procedures followed by Mr. Faizan. · What is the state of the blood samples if no arrangements are made for them to be transported in temperature controlled, sterile containers from the time they are collected till they reach the Thyrocare labs at Turbhe? How can their authenticity and accuracy be trusted? It is 6:20 pm on May 10, 2014 as I type this email and I have still not received the blood reports from Thyrocare by email.