Yesterday , we went for our “annual health check up”. After months of being nagged by our teenage children, two fifty-plus year old public health professionals set off on this fairly routine activity, which as doctors we advocate to our nearest and dearest.
The question was where to go. As we well know, distance and affordability are two key factors in making this decision. Of course the comfort of having a GP is non-existent in our present set up, so I was struck by the startling fact that, as a resident of Bangalore city for over a decade, I really did not have ‘someone I could go to’. There exist the ‘annual package services’ at the big centres like Narayan Hridayala and Apollo or Fortis , which apparently are value for money and I thought I would take a leaf out of the book of my net savvy children and do a google search. Now it turned out that the nearest hospital to our house had awful feedback reviews and I was rather concerned.
So at dinner ( the forum for such matters) when we looked at possibilities, given everyone’s crazy schedules ( which is why this event was skipped last year by the way!) we wondered whether we should go directly to the diagnostic lab and give them the list of tests needed. And discovered that some stuff still needed another doc!
So I made a call to the tried and tested “nursing home” , multi speciality private hospital , fairly close by, and reliable. This last conclusion comes from feedback from scores of patients we have referred I the past and our own parents. The very professional voice on the phone told me “ A physician will do this check up between 6.30 pm and 8.30 pm , Monday to Friday , Madam”.
Friday evening saw us waiting our turn out side the young doctor’s cubicle . After a half hour wait, he did the needful and with great professional courtesy did not charge us a fee. A long list of blood and other such sundry tests , unfortunately not all available under one roof , awaited us on the morrow.
Saturday morning ….., and we set out early, undaunted by the seeming impossibility of finishing it in one day!
As we waited in the queue, I was struck by a number of things. One, people always scramble because they are either truly in a hurry or truly believe they are in a hurry. Staff managing the counter were amazing in their grasp of our infinite number of languages, polite and firm. People do not like to sit next to each other while waiting amongst strangers- every odd seat was vacant. People are so anxious and self absorbed that they often do not see others standing, when a seat next to them is available.
We were called to order for the various tests and I slowly transitioned from being me to being roughly seventy kilos of warmish albuminoid matter. They staff were unfailingly polite, extremely efficient ( the technician told me he draws an astonishing 70 blood samples in two hours) and mostly on autopilot.
As the sun grew warmer and we returned for our post breakfast blood tests, all of us were beginning to droop round the edges. Meanwhile, I had stripped , been poked and prodded radiated examined with ruthless efficiency while being carefully guided into rooms with the ubiquitous green curtains!
My husband rallied through the treadmill while I shot across in an auto to get the menopausal ‘must’ screenings done in another hospital!
By lunch we were jubilant….. wondering how to spend three hours waiting for the results. Finally we went home, exhausted and needing the rest. I went back in the evening with my daughter to pick up the results. And she was telling me about our house help who comes from Bihar. They migrated because her father sold three “kheths” or fields to pay for her brother’s dengue treatment in Delhi where he had gone to work. “I think that is probably why you guys work so hard for health insurance”…..she says.
And I think that is why when Pandora’s box flew open, Hope was left behind!
