JUBILEE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

 

 We are senior citizens. We are pensioners.

When we become unwell, like everyone else we are forced to proceed to a Hospital, consult a doctor and subject ourselves to the treatment the good doctor suggests. The treatment cures us and we go on with our life.

On Saturday, 10^th Jan 26 I was suffering from fever, severe head ache, and a running nose that gave me no let up. I just couldn’t put up with it anymore. My mind told me I must consult a doctor at once. Finding me unwell, Lila said she’d accompany me. I was in no position to drive our vehicle. She had stopped driving after she had retired from her job.

We took the Uber autoriksha route. It took some time. At the Hospital, the receptionist provided us with token no.32. It was 12 noon. The Doctor had a number of patients waiting for consultation. We could meet the doctor at 1.15 pm. She was very considerate. Examination over, she prescribed the medicines and told me to consult her again if I had any further discomfort.

Medicines are supplied at the Pharmacy. Prescriptions from all the consultants end up at the pharmacy. The Jubilee Memorial Hospital, thronging with patients was having a very busy day. At the Pharmacy you have to have another token. There will be a heavy backlog. You wait there patiently for another 30 to 45 minutes for your number to be called. At the counter you are asked to pay up through cash, g pay or card. Then you have to wait for another 5 to 10 minutes for collecting your medicine.

We went through that process and reached home at round 3 pm. The medicine did act. The incessant flow from the nose had stopped. But by Monday violent bouts of cough started and I had no respite. I went on till Tuesday, the 13^th hoping the cough would go away. No way. It was worsening. We knew another visit to the hospital was essential.

We reached the hospital at 12 noon. This time we were lucky. We could meet the doctor fast. She wrote the prescription after careful evaluation. But we were unlucky at the Pharmacy. We were behind 40 patients. It took almost 40 minutes for our turn. Lila went to the counter at the Pharmacy. No invoice was handed over. The young girl took her card and swiped it. Money was transferred. No counterfoil was given either.

Another 10 minutes, the medicines were delivered. Instead of placing the medicines in the cover, the young lady had delivered the medicines and the cover separately. Lila had a difficult time to put them all into the cover as she was holding her shoulder bag with one hand. Fortunately a young man, who observed her predicament, did the good Samaritan act. He took the cover from Lila and placed all the medicines and the prescription in the cover.

We didn’t bother to verify anything at all. We somehow had wanted to reach home fast and take some rest.

At 6.30 pm a young lady from the hospital called me on my phone. She said against an invoice of Rs.690.00 I had paid Rs.6.09 only. She wanted me to G Pay it. I asked how it could be, for the amount was keyed in by the staff at the Pharmacy and we had no bill with us at that point. When I asked for it she forwarded the copy of the payment voucher. I said by the time the medicine was delivered at the Pharmacy the patient and the bystander would never be in their normal frame of mind after such a long wait. They would be thinking only of  reaching their home somehow without any further delay. I added they had to streamline the operations at the Pharmacy. I told her no one wants to visit a hospital as a patient. They do that out of sheer necessity. And they should not expect that the patients or the people with them would be coherent.

I told her I would send the amount that was short and did as I had agreed to.

I have no complaints about anyone at the hospital over our discomfiture

But as I said the operations at the Pharmacy of the Hospital need a critical review or audit by the people who are managing it.