At the outset, I wish to point out that I do not have a vested interest in either promoting or disapproving of Privat Hospital. This review contains my opinions derived from experiences as a consumer with Privat Hospital, Gurgaon and certain other hospitals in Gurgaon.
I and my wife have, on multiple occasions, availed of certain in-patient, out-patient and allied services at Privat Hospital in Gurgaon. We have also had a chance to use the services of Apollo Clinic (at Sector 14), Max, Artemis and certain other hospitals/clinics.
I can say with a certain amount of authority that Privat Hospital does not come even close to offering the kind of service experience that Apollo, Max and Artemis provide.
Privat Hospital is located right in the central business district of Gurgaon. The facility is clean, spacious and has a certain calm about it. But that is as far as Privat goes when it comes to the positives.
Almost all the ‘doctors’ or medical practitioners available for consultation at Privat Hospital are into their late middle ages or older. My guess is that the average age of the doctors available at Privat Hospital would be around 50. Though there is nothing wrong with the age per se, my experience as a customer tells me that such ‘old’ doctors are often not attuned to the latest medical practices and lack even basic customer orientation. That certainly is the case with Privat Hospital.
The other area of serious concern with Privat Hospital is the very poor quality of its paramedical staff. An average nurse or attendant at Privat Hospital can barely understand either English or Hindi. I remember when we were choosing a place for my wife’s delivery, we had a discreet but detailed tour of their obstetrics/post-natal facilities. We found it virtually impossible to communicate with the nurses and attendants around there. We came across a lady who had just delivered a baby and was having a tough time explaining something very simple to a nurse there. After this incident we simply struck Privat Hospital off our list.
The inability to communicate effectively and efficiently also pervades other support staff and front desk executives. The front desk executives, which including a certain Ms. Bindu, are slow, inefficient and talk in monosyllables. Try calling the Privat switchboard number to book an appointment and then do the same thing with Apollo Clinic or Max; the difference in the quality of customer care is palpable over the telephone itself.
What is more, the equipment and technologies in use at Privat are FAR from being state-of-the-art. Top all of this with the exorbitant rates that Privat charges for virtually everything from consultation fees to laboratory/clinical tests. Sample this.
The average consultation fee for a specialist at Privat is around INR 500, while the same for Apollo Clinic is INR 300. Apollo is part of the Apollo hospital chain and, in my opinion has much, much better doctors.
A set of T3/T4/TSH blood tests at Privat will set you back by INR 1, 000 while the same test will cost you roughly INR 350 to 400 from, say, Religare Wellness. I once took the matter of exorbitant laboratory charges with Mr. Deepak Bhanot, the Chief Operating Officer of Privat Healthcare Group. Mr. Bhanot simply dismissed my concern saying that the tariffs were in keeping with ’pricing policy’ of Privat.
To sum it all up you pay a huge price premium for availing rather inefficient and outdated services of Privat Hospital. If you care for your health and money, I would strongly recommend AGAINST using the services and facilities of Privat Hospital. Surprisingly, Privat’s primary clientele appears to be employees and officials from certain non-English speaking embassies. This appears to be part of ‘high-level’ engagements that Privat has with these embassies.
Mr. Kalyan Sachdev, are you listening?