We checked into Apollo in the first week if this month ( May 2008 ) - and my mother’s brother - was operated upon by Dr. Trehan and his team.
The team of doctors and especially the nursing care is of very high standards in this hospital.
Especially the nursing care is exceptional - the nurses in the ICCU and CCU are highly qualified and very motivated.
In the ICCU it is almost one nurse per bed.
On the second night after the surgery my Maama was a bit uncomfortable - so the whole night the nurse sat beside him and attended to him.
The housekeeping too does a fantastic job.
The guards at the security too do a fantastic job. People here fight so much with the guards I just could not believe it - the hospital is very very strict about the visitors and also the visiting hours - to limit the chances of infection for the patient - however I saw so many people fighting with the guards unnecessarily, cause they wanted to get inside the hospital and meet their relatives or whoever - it was so unbelievable - there is so much abuse the guards take ...... really commendable.
Of course Dr. Trehan needs no praise - and his team of doctors Dr. Sheel, our cardiologist and others ...... me and my family owe him so much gratitude and wish him our best - in his new project the MEDICITY in Gurgaon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
However we did have a difficult time with the **secretary of the cardiologist.
But our experience below is just a - (one off day bad experience) and this was our first visit to the cardiologist.
The second visit with the cardiologist and his secretary went off smoothly and timely.
(The purpose of my writing this review) is -
To tell people that even if they have a fixed appointment with the doctor, on the day of the appointment before heading to the hospital - call up again the concerned secretary and confirm with her again about your appointment that the doctor is available - cause from the outside we may think they have a system running in place - scheduling appointments - but it is not so really .......
HOWEVER AGAIN I AM EMPHASIZING THIS WAS JUST A ONE BAD EXPERIENCE -
AND IT CANNOT BE SAID THAT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT ALWAYS HAPPENS IN THIS HOSPITAL WHENEVER I GO THERE - no it is not so.......
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the surgery we had to come after a week for the stitch removal again to the hospital.
We took an appointment with the secretary of the cardiologist at 2.00pm and she confirmed it - however on our appointed day - when we reached the hospital the cardiologist was on leave and his secretary too was on leave.
Imagine ........
Our patient was told that he could get the stitches removed by a surgeon and then he may come again the next day for the medicines that the cardiologist had to prescribe to our patient .......just imagine, or they gave us an option to see some other cardiologist .......the secretary never bothered to call and let us know about the status of the change of plan very conveniently ...so we were given the appointment for the next day again at 2.00 pm (by some other staff at the lounge)- since we wanted to see our cardiologist and not the other cardiologists present - so we went home and our patient had to undertake this futile journey from home to hospital which caused us all a lot of inconvenience esp to the patient who has had his rib cage opened and has under gone a major surgery - and is advised so much precaution for the first weeks after the surgery
The appointments schedule is unorganised here - and I do not think they map the appointments for the doctor and screen all the appointments - for the next day - or make a list of patients visiting next day - they just give you an approximate time that you come at 2 pm bring your file and we’ll keep it on the doctors desk - now it depends how many people are there before you - when you reach the hospital - for a 2pm appointment your name could be called in 15 minutes or it may even take an hour - it largely depends the number of files above your file on the doctors desk - it is call the Platinum Lounge - for the patients of Dr. Trehan.
The next day we were made to sit till 3.00pm - cause at 2.00 pm madam secretary went away for lunch leaving chaos outside the cardiologist’s office door and when she returned and our name was called to see the cardio( which by the way was at almost 3.oo pm) - we had not got our stitches removed. So she conveniently put the blame on us that after getting ourselves registered on the register - we should have gone for stitch removal - and in fact now the attending surgeon had also left cause he was off duty so we had to wait before the next surgeon comes on duty - I mean what the hell - we don’t get ourselves bypassed everyday - what do we know - how things go - that the procedure is to register yourself, get the stitches removed and then meet the cardio - you leave us waiting and now - - - amazing .......
So we protested strongly - that this secretary was making a joke of the whole situation -Yesterday she never bothered to call us and now today again she was again full of B. S - ...... ha man then her expression changed and her tone changed -- and she started making excuses and at the same time buttering us - even offering us her cell phone number - so the next time when we have to come for CCC Comprehensive Cardiac Checkup - we call her directly ....... I mean amazing ....... they would rather put up an efficient running system in place - rather than coaxing us and making our patient sit for like 2 hours ...... so finally after all this tamasha things started rolling ........ and when the action started it took us just 15 minutes for the whole process ........
The stitch removal took 3 minutes and the cardiologist took about 10 minutes .........
Had things been organised in this Platinum Lounge - we should have taken just 14 minutes for the whole process instead of spending almost 2 hours ......
But still - we are very happy with our cardiologist and he is highly skilled and has a lot of hands on experience - and would thank our cardiologist for all the good recovery that our patient is making under him.
But if any of their administration officers from the hospital read my review - I would really like them to have a better system running - maintaining the appointments schedule - and ensuring appointments run by the clock
Other wise Apollo is a fantastic Hospital - the doctors, nurses, house keeping, the guards and other sundry departments do a fantastic job.
So I highly recommend this hospital - to anyone who thinking of undergoing CABG - under Dr. Trehans team .... of course soon he’ll be shifting to MEDICITY ........... so my review here is valid only till the time Dr. Trehan is here at Apollo ........