Around 2 months back while getting up into an upper berth seat in a train compartment, my Dad who is 66 years old, experienced some acute pain in his lower back. For 3 to 4 days the pain continued. Once the pain was gone, he came to realize that he is not able to walk properly. Even though there are no pain, he is sort of dragging his left leg after a while and the leg is getting tired very quickly. He didn’t pay much attention to this at that time. But with time it became worse. He was not able to walk even for 100 meters. Throughout his life he has led a very controlled life and for past 5/6 years he has been practicing Yoga and Pranayam to the extent that he is one of the qualified Yoga teacher and also a life time member of Patanjali Yoga Pitha.
A person who used to walk for 10 KMs without any problem, for him it was a shock. So he went to Apollo, Bhubaneshwar and consulted Dr Bikash Mishra. There after doing some MRIs, Nerve Conduction test, and blood tests, the doctor advised him to get admitted immediately.
At that time we were apprehensive as all of us know ….or at least this has been my experience…that private hospital think that patients are ATMs. So until the time they have made the ATM out of Cash, they will continue.
Hence I asked him to come to Bangalore and show to some doctors here. My aim was to show him at NIMHANS (National institute for Mental Health and Neuro Science).
The out patient building is the first building on the right hand side, if you are entering from the Jayanagar side. From Dairy circle side, there is a board that indicates the OPD.
I had some idea about the procedures. One thing that I knew was that, one will have to come early and stand in the queue to register the patient’s name. I thought if I come by 6:30 AM it should be good enough. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I came to register on a Monday morning, and reached NIMHANS at 6:15 AM, I got the first shock. There were around 80 people already in the queue. I stood in the queue with two minds, whether to continue or to come back again the next day. Since I had already taken leave from work, I continued to stand. At around 7:45 AM the counter opened.
So here are some tips if you want to come to NIMHANS as an Outdoor patient.
1. Avoid coming on a Monday. It is the busiest day of the week. (Sunday they do not see outdoor patients).
2. There are parking available for both four wheelers and two wheelers.
3. If you can come with a reference which refers specifically to NIMHANS, you will be given priority. Contact the security guard over there. They will help. But for that also come max by 7 AM.
4. If you do not have any reference, then come by 5 AM. The earlier you come, chances are there that you will be able to finish everything in a day.
5. The queue will lead you to a counter where you have to pay Rs 20/- and register your patient’s name.
6. Then you will have to wait in another queue (or you can sit down in the chairs available there) until your name is called in another counter.
7. Go and collect the receipt. You will find a number written over it. That number tells the door number where you will see your first doctor.
8. The first doctor will do some preliminary examination and will refer to another doctor.
9. If you are lucky, you may get to see the next doctor in 1 to 2 hours time. For me, I hit the lunch time, and hence got to see the doctor after around 3 hours.
10. The next doctor will again do some check ups. After ascertaining your problem, finally he will refer you to the appropriate department. He will also give you a folder which will contain your case details, written by the previous two doctors. He will also give you the date and time when you will have to come again and go to the appropriate department.
11. I got the appointment for Wednesday. When I asked when to come, he told me to by 7 AM. But I guess I should have come by 5 AM.
12. This building is just opposite to the building where you would have gone earlier.
13. You have to go there and submit your folder at the counter just near the entrance.
14. Once you have submitted, he will ask you to go to a particular Door …mostly on first floor on the same building.
15. When I went there, I was again shocked to see another 100 people already waiting there. You have to go there and wait, until your name is called.
16. I was told that your name is called, NOT based on how early you have come, but based on the importance of your case (No way to verify that). Hence sooner you go the better.
17. Anyways the doctors started coming by 9 AM. After that they started calling names. My Dads turn came at around 11 AM. At that point I thought that the waiting is over. But after going inside I realized that my wait is far from over. Inside there will be a number of rooms and the nurse there will ask you to go to a particular room and wait in front of it. Here make sure that your file has reached the doctor in that room. The nurse gave us the file and we were holding onto the file without realizing that if the file is not inside, the doctor is not going to call us. Hence it is important to ensure that your file has been sent to the doctor.
18. After waiting for another 3 hours, at around 2 PM one doctor called us. He was an intern there. He spent around 45 minutes to 1 hour to do a thorough checkup of my Dad, listening to each and every thing very patiently and noting them down in the file. He was extremely diligent in what ever tests he did.
19. After that he submitted the file to another senior doctor and asked us to wait until he calls us. Again after waiting for another 1 hour, the senior doctor called us. He listened to the intern (who also joined him when we went inside) and then did another round of test for another 30/40 minutes.
So that’s roughly the procedure that will go through if you want to go and get treated at NIMHANS.
So is that worth it? Well my answer is a BIG YES. Every bit of it.
I think it is a world class hospital…not because of its facilities…but because of its doctors. The compassion, passion, and dedication that I saw there was amazing. It reminds you what a real doctor should be like. Even though a huge number of patients they need to see every day, there was no compromise on the time that they spent with each patient, paying complete attention and no point bitter or showing any kind of frustration. At that point I realized why NIMHANS is so popular and why so many people who can afford the best private hostpitals in the world, also go there and spend hours and days standing in the queue to meet the doctors and get treated there. Me and my dad both at that time realized that it was the best decision to come to NIMHANS instead of going to the bloodsucking private hospitals where the only agenda is to make money.
Eventually my father got admitted there, as suggested by the Doctor. Even though we wanted a private room, we didn’t get it as it was not available. We got a semi private room which is shared by another patient. The room has its own attached toilet and bathroom. The semi private room costs around Rs 250/- per day. For each patient in the room, there is a cupboard, an attendant bed available. It does not have TV or AC etc. But if you are keen, then you can request them and they will move you to such rooms as soon as becomes available.The room and the bathrooms were very clean and it gets cleaned once every day very thoroughly.
The nursing staffs were very good and diligent.
You would wonder why I have to mention all these points… Isn’t it given in any hospital?
Well I have some horrifying stories to tell when my wife was admitted for a small operation in one of the swanky hospitals…currently known as FORTIS in Bannerghatta Road. Look out for my next post for my experience there.
My Father is on his way to recovery and I am thankful to all the doctors who treated him there. I would advise anyone who has any neurological problem, to visit this hospital with wonderful doctors.
