The story goes from "Good" to "not-so-good" to "worst" with reference to my visit to MANIPAL HOSPITALS, Whitefield a week ago.
Good: My wife had cramps of pain in the abdomen. Doctor Balaji’s(initially sounding courteous) spent some good time reviewing my wife’s condition and recommended UltraSound among other tests. The test and the subsequent CT scan diagnosed this as INTESTINAL OBSTRUCTION.
Not-so-good: However, the way SURGERY was prescribed the next day by Doctor Balaji and Doctor Girish was quite abrupt. Surgery may give quick-fix results and might have been an immediate solution(I cannot and don’t want to argue) - however, it could certainly have been waited for after probably a Conservative line of Treatment(without surgery).
WORST:
1) The moment the doctor came to know that we WERE NOT going for surgery at Manipal and were seeking 2nd opinion outside MANIPAL(as anyone would do before any surgery), his attitude completely changed. He was even uncourteous in a call(I agree that the call was made in the late hours of the night), when we requested a change of the language used in the Discharge Against Medical Advice(DAMA) form, the language of which was very crude and showed me in a poor light that we were AGAINST SURGERY at MANIPAL. I didn’t LIKE THAT A BIT. He even said that "I am not obliged to speak to you or any of your relatives, especially after you have gone against our Surgery advice." The doctor’s assessment may not be wrong and his skills in his area cannot probably be challenged - but the change in his attitude, language, demeanor is not what we expect coming from someone of a noble profession as a Doctor. One could easily make out the money-mindedness of MANIPAL HOSPITALS, Whitefield
2) Even the duty doctor scared my wife in the night by telling her that our insurance won’t be approved(you don’t tell such things to a patient, but rather only to an attendee). The behavior of even the ON DUTY staff changed visibly, once they found that we wanted to get discharged.
3) They even conducted a plethora of tests even before I gave consent for surgery; for e.g. I had to stop in between the HIV test telling them to wait!
I finally got my wife discharged that very night and admitted her to Sakra Hospital under the appropriate guidance and calm assurance of Doctor Kini and his able team. Needless to say, my wife is back home WITHOUT ANY surgery. The treatment and behavior of the entire team at SAKRA was a welcome relief and assuring and a fresh breath of change from what we had experienced at MANIPAL, Whitefield. I have no personal vendetta against MANIPAL hospitals. In fact, my daughter had a mini-procedure on her forehead a few months ago, when she suffered from some injuries. However, this incident has left a very bad taste in my mouth, and recommending MANIPAL HOSPITAL, Whitefield WOULD NOT and NEVER feature anywhere in my advice to near and dear ones.