Medicity, a premier health institute in NCR, Delhi founded by eminent cardiologist Dr Naresh Trehan boasts of conglomeration of Multiple Super Speciality Institutes which are led by exceptional medical practitioners who are leaders in their respective fields. The vision of the hospital is to reach highiest level of excellence in medical care. It is touted as one-of- its kind facility in this part of the world to provide accessible and affordable healthcare. Spread across 43 acres, The Medcity has 1250 beds in addition to 350 ICU beds. Because of pool of specialist doctors, patients from far off places come here for treatment. But the story has a sting in the tail. Like other private healthcare centres, Medicity is also a thoroughly commercial Institution. For all kinds of treatment the hospital offers a package and the money under the package deal is deposited in advance. After treatment gets over and the patient is to be discharged the final billing is always much more than the estimated package advised before treatment. I have witnessed several episodes of disputes during my stay in the hospital as attendant of a close relative. Almost every day one or the other family could be seen arguing over inflated billing. It may not matter much for those who can afford to pay but for the poor families to pay extra (more than package) amount of Rs 50,000 or so may be a big burden which they can hardly afford.
Despite having 1250 beds, the hospital remains overbooked. In the cases of surgeries, soon after operation, the patient is kept in the ICU for a day or two and thereafter shifted to either a shared room or a single room depending on the package chosen. Then in a day or two the patient is discharged irrespective of his recovery progress. In a recent case one of my close relative had undergone colon surgery; on the fourth day of operation she was discharged despite her stitches were oozing abscess. As her condition did not improve she was again admitted in the hospital after a week. It caused lot of inconvenience to the family which had to come from another town. In yet another case of radiation therapy, the patient had to be readmitted after only 3 hrs of discharge from the hospital. The hospital’s plan is quite understandable, It will be commercially viable to have a new patient admitted from whom the hospital on an average will earn Rs 200000 rather than continuing with the ‘operated’ patient who will give only room rent and doctors visiting fee etc. Therefore, there is always urgency to get the ‘bed’ vacated for the next package deal.
