Ome of things you must know about Jehangir -
Difference in handling patients by old and new set of doctors. Newer/younger doctors are aware of newer techniques of identifying root cause but the older doctors do not support them. What this means to the patient is that you may have to wait and watch until things go drastically wrong/right!
Jehangir does NOT have the facility for an MRI scan. They move patients out to KEM/Ruby Hall for this. In our case, an MRI at the initial stage (when hydrocephalus was diagnosed) would have helped timely detection of the problem and the site within the brain (lobes/ventricles). Here again, towards the end, when I suggested that we go in for an MRI, the senior neurologist said that my dad is not in a condition to be moved out (as he was on ventilator).
Incompetent and reckless doctors are assigned Neuro ICU duty. And interestingly, all of these doctors aspire to be famous and hence, when the senior neurologist in on his rounds, all of these ’duty’ doctors (both from neuro ICU & medical ICU) swarm and follow him like bees, conveniently ignoring the patients!
There are only 3 head nurses in their ICU (neuro ICU has 2 and HDU has 1). It is scary to see trainee nurses assigned critical patients in the ICU. (My dad had several of those as he was one of the patients to have spent months there.)
Acenetobacter is a killer bacteria and Jehangir ICU is a host. This bactreia easily spreads through hospital staff and the hospital takes no cognizance of such life threatening causes.
The hygeine factor within their ICU is zero. I can say this confidently as I have witnessed their cleaning regime for months. To state a few - nurses do not regularly clean the feeding tube, staff do not sanitize their hands while moving between patients, uncleaned glasses used to dip feeding tubes, a guy who cleans patient cubicles uses a small toilet bucket with water and just one cloth. The same cloth is used to wipe walls, glass tops, railings etc for all patients! (wonder how infections cannot spread)
An ICU must have one nurse assigned to one patient. Surprising how this hospital manages 2 & 3 patients with a single nurse. What the hospital does not realize here is that the quality of treatment & attention is compromised
Billing - ridiculous number of items are billed to patients. Poor/uneductated people who do not know how to look at the bills are easy preys. I have maintained copies of daily bills where 40 syringes, 200 swabs of cotton, 20 BP tablets are claimed to have been administered and used for my father in a single day. 2 days when ventilator wasn’t used had also been included!
Rules - Interestingly, there are 3 sets of rules at Jehangir. One for the hospital staff, one for the elite puneites and third for common people. Even before you start thinking let me explain this. The doctors, nurses and security guards etc do not remove their footwear when entering into the ICU. The elite Puneites do not have to take their foot wear off and nobody stops them from entering the ICU! However, for the rest of the junta, there are rules both w.r.t time and cleanliness.
Treatment of Weaker Section patients - Please be aware that though on papers this may exist, there are ’if & buts’ to this clause which the social worker or the hospital will not inform you about. The treatment metted out by the social worker is pathetic and it sucks! They will never tell you that total bill has to be equally divided between patient and hospital. She ’hates’ responding to your queries and acts as though she were doing you a favour. She has the audacity to say that you may have bank accounts which you aren’t declaring to get free treatment!! Is it possible that you maintain several bank accounts - one for hawala transactions and one for treatment purposes? This planning is possible only if you were God. While your loved one is hospitalized and fighting to live, the hospital thinks that you are busy coming up with stories about your bankruptcy! If we have the money, what would stop us from using all of it to save the life of our loved one? And if we do not have money, you have to live with all the nonsense / utter SHITTY behaviour that is served to you. Cudos to Jehangir - they are well trained at the latter.
Your patient may be critical to you but for this hospital - they would be critical only when the patient collapses within their premises.
Of the numerous patients who enter the ICU here, I have seen only a few live to tell their tale of survival. Rest all were wrapped up in clean white sheets and handed over to mourning relatives. Wonder if there is any statistical information the hospital themselves maintain to see how many of their patients really recover from ICU?
The hospital provides ambulance service prior to admission but when they die, it is a paid service. How sad could it get.
In 2.5 months I have witnessed several emergency cases and wish all those relatives could share their experiences on a forum like this. I lost my dad and hope nobody else goes through this ordeal.
To all readers, I am not advocating any other hospital here but would suggest a few things -
Be sure to insure yourself and your family members adequately to save yourself the frustration of fund arrangement
When you are advised about any operative procedure by one hospital, please take a second opinion from a specialist from another hosptial in town
Ensure you choose a hospital which has the latest technology and equipments as this is extremely important in major operative procedures
However, if you are hell bent on a particular doctor who is associated with a hospital which does not have a good reputation, find out if he is a visiting doctor in a hospital with better facilities.
The above points are from my personal & traumatising experience where in we finally lost our dad on 23 Apr’11.