Revolution 2020

A slight disappointment this time, especially after a long wait since '2 States'. Didn't find the novel as interesting as the rest. Nevertheless, I am still a big fan of Chetan's narrations. 
Especially for a person in me, it is difficult to digest certain depictions. How could Aarti have a relationship with Gopal parallely, when she is committed to Raghav and still convince herself that it is because Raghav hardly spends time with her. The story has a dramatic end, irritating I should say. Raghav definitely deserves someone better than Aarti. 
In fact I found it stupid when Priyanka his heroine of 'One night @ the Call Center' broke her engagement with Ganesh because he had not revealed his baldness to her. But did she ever tell Ganesh about her previous relationship with Shyam?. Pushing aside these pitfalls, his novels are great to read and deserves real appreciation for the amount of research he does.

Medical practice is now a business - III

The operation was successful next day and Bharath was given timely information about the progress by doctors and staffs. Aftermath of operation was painful and it took me hrs to regain my composure.  Bharath was full of praise for the hospital. While waiting outside the theater he had noticed many patients below poverty line undergoing surgery. Surprised on how they could afford the cost, it was explained that they were treated in a separate division of SRMC which was similar to GH, where the treatment was free of cost except for the pharmacy bills. Cosmetic surgeries for split lips, skin burnt in accidents etc. which would cost a fortune otherwise were treated almost free. WOW, was all we could say. 
I requested for one more night stay at the hospital because of the pain, when the doctor paid a visit to the bed. Ready for discharge the next day, Bharath and my father-in-law kept inquiring on the final settlement (?) and discharge summary to the AO (administrative office) ward secretary. After few hours of wait, Bharath handed over to me the final bill for 33k. The reaction in his face was a mixture of confusion, anger and helplessness. I quickly scanned the bill and noticed the total amount to be 29600 though the break up was for 33K. Clueless on the balance amount to be paid (we had paid 15k already) I rushed to the AO myself (Yes I did, forgetting my sutures..). I had also noticed that the room rent for the first day stay was charged as 2700 instead of 1200. The AO secretary simply said - 'Oh, it was a temporary stay is it ?'. I showed her the report sheet where the temporary stay was mentioned and signed by the section in-charge. She quickly amended the bill to be 1500 less and looked at me as if 'What next ?'. I said to her that I require clarifications on the bill details. 
I was charged : 
General Surgery - 3100
Professional fees - 7500
OB&G Surgery - 6000
Anesthesia charge - 1500
The bill also had considerable portion for operation theater, drugs & disposable charges. I did not understand why was General Surgery and OB&G Surgery mentioned as 2 separate components, when I had undergone just one operation. The ward secretary paused for a second and promptly replied that 3100 was the operation charge and 6000 the cost for the laproscopy equipment(?) involved in the surgery. I pointed to her that those charges were included separately. When the half-an-hour talk turned futile, I rushed to the Gyn to check her influence on the bill. She turned a sorry face :-( but however promised to take our bill to the next board meeting, to express our unhappiness on the exorbitant charges.
On the way back home, I said - 'No wonder, they do free service for the poor'. Bharath had a positive note on this - 'Take it easy. Get some peace thinking that the extra amount you paid helps someone needy.' I didn't know what to comment at his remark.


-The End-

Medical practice is now a business - II

Very poised, the lady said - 'How much do you expect the operation to cost ?. 
I replied - 'My medical practitioner has informed us that it would cost not more than 25k'. She promptly followed - 'This would be the cost provided you choose general ward for the stay' and further added - 'The general ward would contain 40 beds each separated by a curtain'. 
My father-in-law and myself were shocked.  
1) We did not expect money to be a deciding criterion, as though she was selling some commodity to us. It was left to us whether to proceed with the General ward.
2) We expected a decent private room for 25k.
Shaking myself as the reality pinched, I replied - 'I have a baby to nurse and expect some privacy'. The staff paused for a minute and said - 'Well, you can take a look at our general ward before deciding'. 
We readily accepted the invite and quickly paid a visit to the GW. 
It was not bad, we thought. The beds were neatly laid in a row and looked cleaner than we expected. The attender however (person accompanying the patient during the stay) had to sleep on the floor adjacent to the bed. We decided to go ahead considering the stay to be only for 2 days. The admission form had it mentioned 25k approx and we were asked to pay 15K immediately. The ward nurse said that the operation would happen only when this pymt is made. 
We were asked to stay in a single private room (AC), which confused us. However the nurse quickly cleared our doubt, adding it was a temporary stay until a bed in general ward was made available. The room tariff for GW was 1200 and for this room - 2700. The staff assured that the billing would be for 1200 only, this being a temporary stay. We were taken aback by the room tariff rules. A single day charge was calculated between midnight to next day midnight. In other words, if I check-in today at 4:00 pm and get discharged tomorrow say at 3:30 pm, I would be charged for 2 days though my stay is less than 24 hrs. The irony was that we agreed to all these norms.
I slowly examined the room allocated to us. The room reminded me of the facilities provided in a hospital where I was admitted for delivery. My delivery charges in that hosp was 25k for 3 nights stay, which also gave us a decent single private room with AC. Nevertheless, we went ahead with SRMC because the former hospital does not do sterilization until the second baby is 2 yrs old. 
After a 3 hrs stay in the private room we were shifted to GW. With just a partition in between each bed, we could hear patients in nearby beds moan with pain, cry from new borns etc.. My mom decided to keep varshu at home during nights, not to be disturbed by surroundings and we thought she was right. My operation was scheduled for next day at 9:30 AM.

To be continued..

Medical practice is now a business - I

It has taken me some time to add my second post. After deciding to join office, thought about the list of activities I need to attend before my maternity leave ends. One of them was to have my sterilization done through laparoscopy. My Gynecologist suggested Porur Ramachandra Medical college for the operation, she working there being one of the reason. I was warned about the cost to be 20 to 25K approx. Sterilization does not come under my company's health insurance cover and we decided to go ahead bearing the cost.
I had to visit the hospital 2 days before the operation, to get sign-off from the anesthetist showing him my health reports. Was impressed by the hospital's infrastructure, the hygiene and response from the staffs. Felt the entire system worked in a corporate fashion. The registration and consultation fees were high of-course. Discussed pros and cons with Bharath, amma and finalized the operation date as Sep 30.
Reached the hospital the day before, with my in-laws and handed over the admission slip at the admission counter. The administrative staff handed over the room tariff charges to me.
To be continued..

How I started blogging..

Wow, I have started blogging :)
Thanks to Chinmayi, for being a source of inspiration. I am on Maternity leave now, having delivered SriVarsha. Getting bored at home and eagerly awaiting my joining day at office. Happened to visit Chinmayi's blog (Chinmayi Sripada, the singer, the  anchor, RJ, dancer, Linguist etc.) accidentally I must say and was greatly thrilled at the idea of creating a blog for me. Hats off to chinmayi for all her success. She has spread her wings wide at a very young age entering into many fields of interests. Wow, how versatile she is !!
Wish, I help Bharath reach greater heights in his career and we together become a successful entrepreneur in some areas of our interests soon. 
My tribute to Lalli amma for being a pillar at home managing the household chores and more importantly my 2 daughters.
Will write more...