Friday, March 09, 2007

Healthcare Crisis

Unfortunately for me I have had to visit quite a few hospitals and clinics in Mumbai over the past 8 months. But fortunately the good lord made sure he kept me company and all went well. Really appreciate it big guy.

This brief encounter with the health care industry has left me with a dry throat, after all the yelling and screaming, and made me a supporter of euthanasia as well, for god forbid I have to depend on these people to keep me alive. So let me get started

1) Cleanliness definitely is not paid as much attention as it deserves
2) Professionalism is absolutely absent
3) Doctors are still considered kings and well they act like emperors doing just about whatever they wish
4) Lack of transparency. The patients are not informed about why medications are being given and why treatments are continued for extended periods.
5) The nurses in most places are truly under trained and sometimes downright incompetent. And to have to trust your lives in these hands is a tall order to place on a patient.
6) Earlier the best thing about hospitals was the awesome food that they provided. I think that too doesn't exist anymore.
7) Total lack of coordination between the health services and the insurance companies.
8) No accountability at all for these so called doctors of life.

We hear a lot about the next wave of medical outsourcing that is hitting India. I wonder how come foreigners, especially these Americans, manage in these sordid conditions. I guess they sallow a bit of their pride and Americanisms considering the low costs. But well give me a bottle of sleeping pills any day instead of a room in any of these hospitals.

Oh there is a silver lining to this dark cloud to. Low costs, great doctors (if you are patient enough to find them). So I hope the dark cloud shrinks in size soon. I ain't getting younger anyways:)

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