S.S. KARNADSHA writes from Bangalore: Something very interesting has been happening with the July 3, 2006 issue of Outlook magazine.
Across the country, in cities big and small—Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Bangalore, Madras, Hyderabad, Poona, Hubli, Guntur, Vizag, Chitoor, Madurai and Coimbatore—some unidentified people have been buying up copies of the magazine available with retailers and have been placing orders for thousands more.
The circulation people at Outlook say they have never witnessed such panic buying in the magazine’s 10-year history and the situation on Monday and Tuesday was so absurd that retailers who normally sell about 10 copies were calling up to place orders for not less than 500 more.
Why this panic buying? It is not because of William Dalrymple‘s sexy cover story on the 1857 mutiny. In fact, the cover story is rather disappointing. Dalrymple speaks more about himself and the Orient he discovered, than the last Mughal— Bahadur Shah Zafar and the first war of Independence.
Then what is it that has caused this unprecedented buying spree? It is anybody’s guess. Stop on page 38 and you will see a story on Apollo hospitals and its owner Dr Pratap Reddy‘s “less-than-clean history”. The story is headlined “Anatomy of a Cover-up.” This two-pager is what has caused the flutter in the market.
Yours truly did some investigation on this by getting on to the streets in Bangalore. He asked retailers on Margosa Road in Malleswaram and Shesadripuram, if those who had placed orders for copies with them had left phone numbers to be contacted when the extra copies arrived.
They said “yes” and gave the numbers: 2331***0, 4112***5. When we dialled, they were numbers of a Apollo health care centre and a Apollo pharmacy. Retailers also revealed the ones who had come to pick up the copies had idenitified themselves as Smita and Dhananjay.
Isn’t it surprising that Dr. Pratap Reddy who has built a Rs 1,500 crore business, is naive enough to believe that he can actually block the dissemination of information in these tech-heavy times and Internet age. Does he think he is living in China or the former USSR?
***
See the Outlook article on Apollo: Anatomy of a Cover-up
Also see: Do you trust private hospitals?
28 June 2006 at 5:47 pm
The following letter written by MGP to Dr. Reddy gives one view of the kind of problems patient are facing in his hospitals. Sorry to write that MGP has not yet got a reply to this letter.
Mysore
Feb 27 2006
Dr. Prathap C. Reddy
Founder and Chairman
Apollo Hospitals Group
21/22, Greams Lane (Off Greams Road)
Chennai � 600 006
Dear Dr. Prathap Reddy,
It is with a heavy heart and concern, we would like to bring to your attention the sad state of affairs at your hospital in Mysore. Being familiar with your group of hospitals and their high reputation we were shocked at the treatment given to one of our active members. A hospital like yours when managed properly is an asset that any society can be proud of. Sadly after seeing with my own eyes and being a doctor myself, I cannot say that one can be proud of your hospital here in Mysore. The treatment rather the mistreatment given to Mr. C. V. Nagaraj in particular since he suffered the most injuries and his family members in general was totally in contrast to your mission statement as you would see after reading what we have to tell you.
“Our mission is to bring healthcare of international standards within the reach of every individual. We are committed to the achievement and maintenance of excellence in education, research and healthcare for the benefit of humanity”
Though we were surprised by excessive billings, we will not talk about it in our letter. But we just wanted to point this out since your mission statement claims to bring health care within reach of every individual. Total bill for our member came to Rs. 86000 (67000 for hospital and 19000 for medicines). We want to concentrate only on the treatment aspects.
Mr. C. V. Nagaraj and his family members were involved in a car accident on February 4th, 2006 at around 5.30 PM near Mysore and were brought to the hospital by the police. Mr. Nagaraj had partial avulsion of both ear with deep laceration, left zygomatic region with posterior dislocation of left hip, inferior bone fracture of femur, and subluxation of right wrist joint with type two diabetes mellitus. He had multiple abrasion over left leg.
1. Though he had multiple injuries, when he was admitted, doctors attending him diagnosed only few of them. It was only later they started to find other problems. A hospital known for excellence would have done a thorough examination and found out all the problems in the initial stage or at least most of them. Initially they told me only about the hip joint dislocation and other problems were diagnosed later. This itself was shocking. But for this problem, all the doctors treating Mr. Nagaraj were good and we have no complaints against them.
2. When the patient abdomen was bloated, the nurse never bothered to look at the catheter which had come out. Only after one of the MGP members(Mr. Venkatesan) pointed it out, it was set right.
3. The patient was given three pints of blood. But the nurse did not notice when the tube came out and blood spilled over the floor. It was an awful sight to see in a hospital which wants to be known for its excellence Again only when one of the visitors pointed it out, it was set right.
4. The ward boy reading the wrongly reported news item about the death of the son-in-law in the car accident, took the unusual and shocking step of informing Mr. Nagaraj that his son-in-law has died in the car accident. The patient went into the shock and when his wife came to see him he inquired if all karyas were taken care of. It was only after his son-in-law came to the hospital, the patient believed that the news papers were wrong. How can a ward boy be so indifferent to the human suffering? What care was taken for selecting such a ward boy who does not even know that he should not be conveying such sad and shocking news to a patient? Again is this what one expects from a hospital of excellence?
5. We were shocked to find that there was just one bed pan to serve all the patients of the ward. Is this a misplaced step to reduce cost in a hospital of excellence?
6. On the premises of the hospital, students of nursing school were bursting fire crackers. No one from the hospital felt the need to stop such heinous crime. It could send some heart patients into a shock. Even after I complained to the security, no action was taken.
7. A nurse even without paying attention walked away from another patient Geetha (Nagaraj’s daughter who was also injured in the same car accident) pulling the injured hand of the patient and she screamed out of unbearable pain. How could a nurse be so careless?
8. Because of the limited curtains, there was no privacy in semi special ward. How can a hospital which wants to be recognized as one of excellence can allow such a thing?
9. There was only one ward boy to assist 14 patients. When he went downstairs to take a patient for investigation, there was none to take care of patients when they needed bed pans. Is this what one expects from Apollo hospital?
We are sure that you would have been shocked to read about the long list of things which went wrong. We request you to do the following.
1. To institute a committee to find out the reasons for the above and to tell us the steps taken by you to prevent such things from happening in the future.
2. To compensate the patient for the unnecessary pain caused to him and his daughter especially on account of extremely poor nursing care.
As India becomes an international tourist destination for medical treatment, episodes like this does not bode well. We feel that a hospital like yours which was the first to start a corporate hospital system has to pay special attention when problems are brought to your attention to restore customer confidence.
Looking forward to hear from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. N. Ramesh
Working President
CC. Sri Balagangadhara Swamiji, Adichunchangiri, Bellur, Karnataka
Sri. Peter Kennedy, Administrator, BGS Apollo Hospital, Kuvempunagar, Mysore
Sri C. V. Nagaraj, J.P. Nagar, Mysore.
28 June 2006 at 7:17 pm
Oh Appolo will take care of their International Patients with utmost care.. they have a nice 5 star lobby.. all this stuff in the letter above is for local patients only.
I have visited Appolo in Chennai as well.. I cannot comment on the treatment and stuff but going through the registration process and then waiting makes you wonder what “service” Appolo talks of.
You look at it, this is the bane of ALL hospitals. Customer Services does not exist.
28 June 2006 at 7:24 pm
My kudos to this ‘wonder’ man who single handedly built an empire!!! He is simply great, not for his service to common man, but to rich and influential.
28 June 2006 at 8:12 pm
Recently there is news in US .That patients are going to India,Phillipines and Indonasia for Medical Holiday .Infact many Insurance companies in florida now refer their patients to get their costly Surgery done in India.
Apollo is one of the hospital in most favoured ‘Destination’ .
I was just wondering if private hospitals start getting patients from US and elsewhere .What would happen to local patients or people who are ‘BROWN’ and not necessarily BLACK or WHITE ?
28 June 2006 at 9:57 pm
Aaspathre andre abba bhaya aguthe
28 June 2006 at 10:44 pm
KP, by posting a link here, you have attracted Mr. Reddy’s ire. He might plan to buyout WordPress now!!!
29 June 2006 at 10:03 am
with institutes like AIIMS in a soup and Appolos in a curry, I wonder if someone will start marketing alternative medicine in a better way(not the batras and co. pls.)
29 June 2006 at 11:31 am
By the way, I bought a copy of OUTLOOK today at 17th cross, Margosa Road. Just for posterity sake.
31 January 2007 at 11:46 am
Have you for once visited the great KR hospital in Mysore or any other Government Hospital? We may comment on any thing that is done in a Private Hospital and the main reason why we say these things is that we always assume that Private Hospitals charge more. Lets face it. They give good treatment. Yes and the treatment cannot be expected to come free. Even I had met with an accident and I had a Head injury. I was unconscious for two days. I woke up to find the best treatment. I am not sorry but I am only thankful for the Apollo BGS hospital, Mysore for having saved my life. Before being admitted to Apollo, I had been taken to BM hospital in Hunsur road. But, for almost 2 hours I was not given any attention nor any treatment. As my friends and parents tell me, It seems that I had been put on some cot in a (so called) emergency room and not even administered a drip… How can we expect people to come out alive from such hospitals? The police are now bringing accident cases to Apollo Mysore because they too have realised the sorry state of affairs of KR Hospital and BM Hospital.
Even my Father was admitted in February 2006 for a Heart Attack, along with my sister who had a spine injury. They both were also treated well. But for the treatment received if we refuse to pay, then that is the sorry state of our minds. We always expect to be treated for say 1000 Rs or 10000 Rs. How do you think this can be done? Try going to a Government hospital and you will end up paying more bribe than the Private hospital bill for the same treatment. Try going there with a heart patient and before you know it he/she wont be alive for the simple reason being that you had to fulfill the needs of some nurse or ward boy who will not attend to the patient till he / she is bribed! How can you be expect to be alive going to such places?
Just because we hear someone say it or read some article doesn’t mean that everything we hear or read is true! We have to feel it.
As for the case with this person mentioned in the second message here, those conditions mentioned are bad. But, I can say that it was a one-off incident and is not the regular state of affairs in the Hospital…
20 November 2008 at 9:30 pm
I fully agree with the views of Mr. Raghav. You Visit Apollo Hospital, Greams Road Chennai and find the crowd. If people cannot afford to pay they would not come there.
My brother had an attack and after being given first aid treatment he had to be shifted from a place 15 KM from the hospital The ambulance came with fully trained Medical staff and swiftly transported to the hospital. On arrival a group of Doctors attended and after necessary injection with consent for payment they took him to CCU and from that time onwards until CABG done and post operation treatment the services were excellent.
My view is if you cannot afford Apollo please go to any where you want. Having such a highly efficient staff, equipments and facilities, Dr. Reddy can not do Charity Service. I believe he does charity from the money he earns.
Rajamani
16 November 2010 at 7:30 pm
where is Mr.Peter who was /is HR of apollo hospital Mysore I need his contact number or email id ,,he is husband of Mrs.Sujetha Peter who was working as manager of medical records and front office in mysore apollo
17 January 2011 at 9:05 am
Dear sir,
Referring to my file no AC01.1803616 of Apollo hospital of greams lane,Chennai-600006,i would like to state that Dr.Narayan Reddy had adviced me to take a penile doppler test for which an amount of rs 2330
was paid by your bill no ALD317150 on dated 06 jan 2011.
After completing the said test,I was handed over a slip asking me to again pay profession fees(charge)of rs 1000.
I failed to understand why this profession charges was taken from
me.Since,this should be included in the test fees.
Even last time when i did this same test i had paid the test fees of rs 2300 only and no professional fees was taken from me.
I therefore request you to kindly look into this matter and take appropriate action so that patient like me should not be cheated and charged undue amount after all they are coming to your hospital for good treatment and justify charges.
A reply on this matter will be highly appreciated.
Thanks and regards,
Yours faithfully
swarup kundu