Such a terrible experience @anna nagar Dr Agarwal’s eye hospital. It could not have been any worse than this.
Just like any middle class family, we planned our Dad’s cataract surgery in a so-called "world class hospital" - Dr.Agarwal’s Eye Hospital. We wanted to go with cashless surgery with the health insurance we had. Initially, we planned for the 13th of January and we travelled to Chennai all the way from Thanjavur. Initially, we decided to do the cataract removal on 13th of Jan but due to some insurance issues we had to postpone it and the same has been requested to the clinic two days back.
The counsellors were too sweet and they assured me of everything, literally (until the insurance was approved). Due to Pongal festival, it got further delayed and we decided to go with the 19th Jan. We got confirmation from the counsellor named Kanimozhi from Anna nagar branch. As advised by her we started all the medicines and drops that were supposed to be taken from 2 days before the surgery. And we didn’t hear back from her or from the team until today. While continuing the drops and medicines for two continuous days, we wanted to confirm on the time, so we called her around 3 pm today and we were shocked that our appointments were cancelled because the doctor (Baskaran) will not be available tomorrow.
The staff could have informed us before we gave her a call. It’s just very hilarious to know such a big hospital with a number of appointments in a developed city is running with just "one doctor". We ensured the staffs multiple times before we scheduled the appointment that we didn’t want it to get rescheduled again. When I requested for a different doctor as we wanted to go with the same day, they told: "we cannot open the operation theatre just for one patient". That was rude. For a minute I thought what’s wrong about opening the operation theatre for a single patient. We are paying for it and they cannot take us for granted.
Just wanted to understand if it’s very common with your hospital.
1. The staff replying in a very rude tone and not listening to the patient’s concerns. She could have been little polite in understanding the needs and concerns of the patient.
2. If at all an appointment is getting cancelled, it must be the hospital’s responsibility to inform the patient prior to taking the medicines. In such a case where a doctor is going on in an emergency they should have had one more specialist.
3. My father is taking tablets for Diabetes, BP and heart. There was a change and they wanted to cut down a few medicines just for the surgery. When I told the lady that my dad was following all the medicines in the prescription without fail and now you’re telling so casually - she said it’s just antibiotics and nothing will happen. This is the first time I’m listening to such a careless statement from a person working in a hospital. Would you only bother if something serious happens to your patients?
4. When I was sticking to the date, she would call me back for the options around 6.30 but I never got a call from her until 8. My father discontinued the tablets and he went to sleep. Later at 9.30, a person from Alwarpet branch called to inform his appointment has been confirmed for tomorrow at 7 am in Dr Agarwal’s eye hospital, Alwarpet branch. How would it be fair to inform somebody about the surgery late in the night that they have an appointment the next day @ 7 am?
5. The staff were very keen to get the payments even before the necessary tests had been taken. The funny part is that we still haven’t got our reports in hand. It has become more commercialized. Please don’t be focusing only on grabbing money, also ensure the treatment and the service is up to the mark. For the investigation it costs around 7k.
6. We spent almost 2 days in the hospital and travelled just for his surgery and had few important plans postponed just for this. Unless it comes from the lower grade of staff there’s no point in publicizing the hospital with a narrated videos.