Most ridiculous things I heard as a patient
I have been frequently in and out of hospitals for the last five to six years ( as a primary caregiver for my mother). Anxiety and exhaustion are the most prevalent state during such days. But certain words of doctors and hospital staffs had a rare mix of heightened anxiety, anger and sometimes long lasting humour.
These happened in well renowned healthcare providers in India that are highly recommended. Deep down, probably these words reflect a bit of the attitude and prevalent practice in many hospitals in India. Don’t ask for proofs, I don’t have any. It happened, one can choose to believe it or not.
- “ You can feed vadapav to the patient in the ICU”
Vada Pav is a kind of local Indian burger normally available at the roadside. The fact that it was the resident doctor on duty in the ICU that day who advised me, was highly shocking and unsettling. Besides the concern of hygiene, it raised many questions on the basic purpose of ICU and why was somebody there. If the doctor feels a patient was healthy enough to have vada pav as a regular meal, why is the patient in ICU? Visually, it will be quite a scene for one to be having vada pav amidst the other patients with ventilators and machines with typical graphs and beeping sounds.
2. “ What happened to you?”
Probably this a pretty common line as I heard many similar stories from the relatives of other patients. Ask this question to the patient who is just back to the ward from a major procedure, already in pain and high on effect of those cocktail of anaesthetics. Worse the subsequent questions are basically probing the whole history of the patient. Even worse, we are being woken up in the middle of the night or in the wee hours with these questions, so one is definitely bewildered and dumbfounded. Obviously, the answers are barely sensible and the doctor on duty would ultimately end up reading the case file at the nurses’ station; something we all thought they would have already read, and on the basis of which the patients were being monitored.
This was repeated whenever there was a change in the duty of the resident doctor.
3. “ None of my patients have never come back”
This was spoken by a supposedly very renowned super specialist. The context, made it more worrisome since the discussion was about we refusing to stay longer in the hospital as we were not convinced with the line of treatment. Not sure what the intention was, but we made sure we too never went back.
4. “Atleast buy the thermometer”
Amidst the anxiety and exhaustion the patients as well as their relatives go through in a hospital, the last thing they want to hear is a guerilla sales pitch from the nurse. Normally when one is admitted to this hospital , we are given (and charged) a set of durable instruments & equipment by default. We stacked up a good number of sets from our previous admissions to the hospital. We honestly did not need any more. Seemed like a mixing up of sales target with healthcare.
5. “ You have cancer”
Point blank. Yes, a patient ultimately got to know what’s wrong with him/her. But, say this straight to a bedridden frail aged lady who is emotionally very fragile and already losing hope. All through a ultrasound scan, which eventually turned out to be incorrect. I’m sure people can be a little more sensitive, may be it stems from the lack of “care” in healthcare. And here it was a major accredited diagnostics centre.
Are these words disturbing? Yes, definitely. Have I lost faith in the healthcare system of this country? No. Obviously not. It is a fast changing sector with its challenges and efforts of many to bring efficiency and transparency. But it definitely underscores the importance of why patients should be vigilant, seek clarity from the concerned people whenever in doubt and participate more in the healthcare process.
