Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket (Max Saket) — Local services in Saket

My mother is admitted in the ICU in Max Saket. She is 78 years of age, frail, about 25 kgs, suffering from cancer. She got physically assaulted by one of the nurses. During the visiting hours, when I spoke to my mother on my attendant’s mobile, she told me in a very painful voice that a nurse/nurses misbehaved with her. When the attendant visiting her went and spoke to her quietly, my mother in a scared way told her that she had been pushed. I am not sure what else happened with her, she wanted to tell us more, but could not speak coherently. During the same day in the evening, in the visiting hours today, she was totally not speaking, her gaze is fixed to the wall, stoned. I have no idea what they have done to her, given her that she looks stoned and can’t speak at all. I have a feeling they have done something to her so she is not able to tell us what happened with her. I just feel so scared of what they are going to do to her. In the ICU, there are just two visiting hours - once in the morning for an hour and once in the evening for an hour. Between that time, the patient is in the hands of this ICU staff, no idea what is happening with the patient, how he/she is being treated. I don’t even think there are any cameras there. And there are more than one patient in the ICU, so there is no one -to-one attention to the patients. My poor mother, she can’t even speak coherently now, if she needs anything how will she tell the nurses? During visiting hours, the nurses are busy around with other patients, you have to call out to them several times, then they come to you to answer your questions. And now about the primary team, internal medicine treating my mother. No sign of them. No communication from them to me. They come on rounds I guess when they like. Shouldn’t they be around during visiting hours to explain the situation, condition, next steps, test results to the family members/ attendants? The gastro team treating my mother for one of her conditions was there during visiting hours and they even sent me an email. But the primary team, there is no sign of them. No number provided to me to get in touch. No one out there to give me few minutes to discuss the patient’s condition. Isn’t there a process, protocol they follow to communicate with the patient’s family? They don’t take any family members contact details, schedule time to apprise them of the patient’s condition.

I somehow found the WhatsApp number of one of the assistant doctors of the internal medicine and messaged her. After much back and forth messages and calling her incessantly, their team came to visit my mother and spoke to me and finally told me they will call at a specific time when they come to visit. Most doctors out here in Max, have zero bed side manners. They came on rounds, stop to look at patients, suggest meds and go. You have to literally be running after them or calling them for a few minutes of begged conversation with them related to the patients. And just this bit after the lakhs you pay to the hospital as bills. I wrote an email to the head of the internal medicine team treating my mother, about the nurse incident - haven’t got any response.

The only good, kind, and professional doctor I have met here is Dr. Gaurav Chanana who had treated my mother once. He was the only doctor who actually sat me down explained everything- treatment, pros and cons, et al. He was always available to answer any questions on WhatsApp. He is not treating her right now when she is in ICU, but when he came to know that my mother was in the ICU, he just dropped by to say social hi to my mother. You can see that he feels for his patients. And also, all the ER doctors are so kind and informative. They will talk to you, take past history, talk so nicely to the patient, tell you what they are going to do next. I am scared of the next visiting hour. Not sure what condition my mother will be. And the fact that I have written this review, what they are going to do to her. But I had to write what happened to a senior citizen in...

At the beginning everything seemed to go smoothly, but, unfortunately, the ever more awkward issues, started pretty soon. For example, we have been offered a price at the beginning, which at first seemed set, then could be suddenly lowered of 300$ approximately, just because we said we couldn't afford it, without having to remove any of the examinations whatsoever. This felt odd, but it since it was advantageous to us nonetheless, we accept it with a pinch of salt.

After this episode and despite what was conveyed throughout our communication, every time I came, other examinations where done in place than the ones I was told, establishing the basis for the apparently clumsy chaos, which I'll better explain below. At first, the way they handled documentation and various other papers seemed simply chaotic, but then a pattern started to emerge in this purported chaos - basically, what they do is: they give you some mixed documentation after each visit and/or examination, which they then take back again shortly after, for another doctor or some other purposes. Almost always, after they take what they gave you, something goes missing and, of course, it takes time to find that again and, it may happen that a few times you simply feel too tired and exhausted and would just like to go home. In fact, exactly through this jumbling with papers, at some point we lost one of the many receipts (which is actually a feat, considering the mess they do with these papers every day and the amount of examinations we wanted to do). In this one receipt was stated the price of approximately 6000Rs for an MT-Scan of the whole abdomen, which is also the price Mr. Ishvinder Singh mentioned to us in-person. It must be added to this, that because of an earlier "mistake", we had to pay approximately 19000Rs beforehand. After phoning and talking with Mr. Ishvinder Singh, this accident was finally recognised as a mistake on their side. So, they proposed, that instead than returning the money, we could use this as accumulated credit for other examinations. However, "fate" played out that exactly the price of the MT-Scan, whose bill (which we lost) showed approximately 6000Rs (which both I and my girlfriend saw and remembered), got lost in the mess and we couldn't manage to find it again. "Coincidentally", the price for that one examination masterfully became 12000Rs, whilst our accumulated credit was still in their system. Asking how this came to be possible, using all the materials we had available, brought us, outside of big words and overemphasised reactions of offence, to the statement that 12000Rs was always the right price in first place and it had always been! In spite of what both me and my girlfriend remembered from both the receipt and the talk with Mr. Ishvinder Singh, now nobody had idea of what we're actually talking about and became promptly offended by the implications this could have had, if we were to be right...

On top of all of this, the advises the doctors gave me, after getting paid (yes, you have to pay them in advance), were as general and light-headed as they could be. I didn't necessarily expect better, but together with the embezzlement we experienced, it made up for the finishing poison of an already rotted meal..

Main advice: AVOID IT, especially if you are an international guest! If this is not possible: Do one and ONLY ONE examination every day, no matter what they say and suggest. Look that you have all the papers at all times and take pictures of them! Do not trust them with their prices and all what they say at the beginning! Have at least another person with you, which can confirm what you see and experience.

In a nutshell, I would call this white-collar crime; exploiting stereotypes of the...

A Letter From DRYMM's Family.

Passion for excellence and care for life sums up our overall impression from our experience with Max Smart Super Specialty Hospital Saket. We are from Davao Region, Philippines. My 8-month old child was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia. He needed liver transplantation surgery as a life saving treatment for his rare childhood disease. My wife was his living donor for his new liver.

Max Hospital was highly recommended to us because of their brilliant team of doctors spearheaded Dr Subhash Gupta and their GI Pediatrician, Dr Vikram Kumar. During our treatment at the hospital, we realized all the doctors were not only exceptional, but were all very kind and dedicated to every patient ensuring excellent recovery and health. Dr Jagadeesk, Dr Mukesh, Dr Raj to name a few. Also, they have state-of-the-art equipment and facilities which made us even more confident with our choice of hospital. They have the advance and modern medical machines and equipment. They have hotel-like rooms, delish healthy foods, and excellent services which add up to our healthful stay and recovery.

Our overall experience with Max Hospital was excellent. From our online consultations back home to our travel to their hospital in Saket, New Delhi, everything was convenient and well organized by their IPS team and the Max coordinator in the Philippines, Ms Jen. Their International Patients Services were superb. I highly commend Ms Nazneen for her passion for service especially for us international patients who needed all the help we can get to expedite the medical treatments we needed. She was always there for us whenever we needed her assistance which made us even more at ease. Of course, we appreciate Mr Alex for being most helpful for he was with us in almost all our transactions even outside working hours and other IPS representatives who also assisted us make our transactions in the hospital fast and carefree whenever Mr Alex was not around. Also, we really appreciate Mr Evan, the manager, for granting our requests during our admissions and for Ms Lal Nun Mawi for being so dedicated and passionate in helping us with all our concerns and did it with utmost kindness.

The doctors and nurses, especially the Liver Transplant ICU doctors and nurses, were very hardworking, caring, friendly and helpful. I felt at ease leaving my baby in the ICU to recover knowing that they have dedicated and kind doctors and nurses to take care of him 24/7. The ICU Doctors, Dr DJ and the dedicated lady doctors and the ICU nurses Sister Rupa, Sister Pema, Sister Vijitha, Sister Sonam, Sister Blessy, Sisters Monika, Sisters Susmy, Sister Mamta, Sister Baby, Sister Anjaly, Sister Jyoti, and all the equally dedicated and kind ICU Sisters really cared and loved our Drymm even after he was discharged from the ICU. Grateful also to the kind and helpful GDAs, housekeeping staff, F&B personnel and admins who made sure to provide us our requests during our admissions. Further, we appreciate the F&B manager, Mr. Kanhaiya, for personally assisting us and making sure we are provided with good food on time and for helping us provide the best nutrition for our baby even after we were discharged.

We may have not mentioned all the important names especially the Stent surgery team, CLBS team, consultants, doctors, nurses and other IPS staff and Max Admins, but we are truly and forever grateful to all who were part of our Liver transplant journey with Max Hospital Saket.

May God bless each...