At the consultant’s mercy

Charging exorbitant consultation fees and , in return, not providing satisfactory service has become quite a common practice in private hospitals. The psychological discomfort created by illness compels the patient to undergo each and every test advised by the doctor, even if it is not affordable. In return he expects to know all about his illness. In the event, the patient goes back even more mystified about his illness than before the consultation. Even after he has undergone very expensive tests he is not fully informed about his illness by the consultant.

Relatives accompanying the patient are concerned about his health and know of his doubts and fears. When they intervene and request information from the consultant, they are treated as though they are irrelevant intruders.

We took a relative, Mr. K. A, 62 years old, from Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, suffering from heart disease, to the cardiologist Dr. Satyavan Sharma at the Bombay Hospital on 18 February 1995. Dr. Sharma was paid Rs. 500.00 for the initial checkup. The patient was then advised to undergo a ‘stress test’, to be followed by a series of blood tests and an angiogram. The angiogram was performed by Dr. Satyavan Sharma.

The findings were not explained to the patient. Instead, he was given a prescription which gave no clues as to how and when the prescribed medicines were to be taken or what precautions the patient was supposed to take. Dr. Sharma refused to speak to me or explain the suggested treatment. ‘I am not bound to repeat my instructions to relatives, ‘ he said. When I insisted upon an explanation he asked me to bring the. patient along.

This time my wife, Shamim, went with the patient. She sent a note to the doctor saying that the patient had come along but the doctor refused to see them. After half an hour or so, Shamim was able to make her way in with the patient. Dr. Satyavan Sharma was extremely harsh with them and asked them to get out of his room. The patient was extremely scared and refused to see the doctor any more. He preferred to consult his family doctor instead. The sum of Rs. 12,000.00 spent had only served to intensify his mental discomfort.

The patient was persuaded to make a last attempt to see the doctor. This resulted in heaps of insults. Dr. Satyavan Sharma agreed to clarify the patient’s doubts only on condition that Shamim did not accompany him. Keeping the patient’s condition in mind, Shamim agreed to wait outside the consulting room. With the patient alone in his room, the doctor started abusing Shamim. The doctor appeared to be more concerned with ventilating his anger than with showing concern for the patient’s state of mind. The patient emerged from the consulting room filled with anxiety, tension and bitterness about ‘Big Doctors’. His parting comment was, ‘They may be specialists but they are not human beings. ‘