Medical System broken in India Story of treatment at MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital. Incidents are based on my experience and the opinion are solely mine. On a Sunday evening, my mom experienced a numbness in her left hand and a poking sensation at her upper chest. She insisted on consulting a Cardiologist. As this was holiday and a festive season, I googled up cardiologists for which google gave me few of the cardiologists in the search result. I called up a doctor who picked up a call and spoke well. But he was out of town. So, I called up next doctor X who to my surprise picked up the call and asked me to bring my mom into Emergency care Unit also know as Out-Patient-Ward of MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital. It was none other than the Head of department of Cardiology. This person (doctor X) is into upper management at MS Ramaiah memorial hospital. He receives any incoming call from any stranger. The reason behind this is only a patient desperate for medical attention would call up a doctor on Sunday Evening. Being a fool, I did not have insights about the way patients are treated here. I had heard few hearsays about the private hopsital run like a government hospital. Doctor X very well knew that a stranger would take his words for granted. He had delegated tasks to a middle management doctor called Y about a potential incoming patient. Every patient is a sale. Commission for every sale. Reached the hospital at 6:00 PM IST, security denied us stating that no cardiology doctors are available today for appointment. When I mentioned the name of a doctor X, all the doors into Out Patient ward was open for us. We met the Staff nurse, Doctory Y at the OPD entrance. ECG and Bio-Marker tests were done immediately. ECG indicated a normal heart-rate. No abnormalities noted. Bio-Marker showed a negative result. Doctor Y advised us to do the second Bio-Marker after 6 hours. Since it was an OPD, as per the policy she could not stay there. Only option left was to get admitted into a In-Patient-Ward. At in patient ward they don't even provide food to patients until they are admitted into a ward. Even after admission only on the next day food is provided. I knew that rice is essential when you get admitted into an ICU ward. Since any medication will have effect only if you have rice. I had heard this fact from many Covid survivers. At 11:00 PM IST I bought food only Zomato and offered rice it to my mother. What a fate. Senior Cardiology doctors never came for rounds at all. Every 6 hours a random junior doctor would come for a round even though they are MD practising junior doctors. They tell canned replies and keep delaying the important tests citing useless reasons. In this case, they could not do the Angiogram early since Upper management wouldn't give them the approval to do so. The idea is that the more they retain you at ward, higher would be the hospitalization bill. The original doctor only reviewed reports on his phone at the beginning. They even charged 1400 INR in the bill for the phone consultation. I was suprised looking at the final bill. If you have insurance duty doctors will ensure that you stay there for 24 hours. If you insist on discharge duty doctor will state that DAMA (Discharge against medical advice). After 6 hours of post hospitalization, the second Bio-Marker test performed also produced a negative result. The new drama started where the duty cardiology doctor, (Junior MD doctors) advised to get an Angiogram done. Since Angiogram would reveal any blockages in the artery. Being a Monday, November 1st 2021, and a festive season, no Angio expert would be available as per their statement. Got my mom discharged after a period of 16 hours at this hospital. Coughed up a bill of 24,920 INR. Pray that no person ever would have to face this plight. Ramaiah's sons serve upma (made out of sooji rava) at a nearby Balaji Temple, while looting patient's hard earned money, using them as lab rats, practise material for Medical college student. If you stay at Bangalore or planning to visit my suggestion is to avoid any Ramaiah brand at all costs.

This is one my biggest nightmares. I hope your mom is doing fine now. Take care.

She recovered. The problem is not related to heart but muscle catch. The logic was that you had to spend near to 1 lac even yo rule out the possibility of a cardiac problem Not knowing a reliable doctor is thr biggest mistake of mine

That is true- in India due to expensive medical education- the whole thing has become business. 😞

Sorry for your experience. This tells me the importance of having "contacts" in every field in India. Was this bill covered under health insurance?

Since I had opted out of TPA , only option left was to go for reimbursement claim.

Little late to chime in here, but always know your in-network hospitals. Once a hospital knows it needs to engage with an insurance company instead of a scared patient's family member, they usually dial down on useless expenses. That's my thought. As stated earlier, always have a doctor in your circle. Someone with whom you have a social relationship, not a professional one. When money is out of the picture, people are willing to give you their less biased opinion.

Once a hospital knows it needs to engage with an insurance company instead of a scared patient's family member, they usually dial down on useless expenses.

This is incorrect. If they know you are going to claim insurance, the hospitals jack up the charges obscenely.

For cashless insurance? It's all between the hospital and insurance company now. The consumer is out of the picture (unless you forget about the room rent part and get screwed on that). If the consumer doesn't have to pay a single paisa, why will the insurance company not fight bogus charges?