I have decided for surgery; what should I do?
As soon as you finalize for surgery, you let me know. Following steps will be taken:-

We shall fix up a date for admission and surgery. Most of the time, I advise admission early in the morning and the patient is operated same day unless there is some associated medical illness.

Once the date is finalized, you have to take a booking number from the hospital by depositing one day’s room rent. This advance deposit automatically gets adjusted in the final bill. As a policy matter, I do not rush my patient to the hospital and operation theatre unless there is some emergency. I always prefer to send the patient home so that he gets time to think about the disease and cross-check my advice from his near and dear ones. This way, patient never feels cheated. After booking, patient is subjected to a few investigations required for anaesthesia. With these investigations, patient is subjected to pre-anaesthesia check-up by the anaesthesiologist. Only after anaesthesia clearance, admission and surgery is finalized. In case anaesthesiologist advises clearance from other specialists (e.g. cardiologist, diabetologist), you will have to go for the same.

Where will I be admitted?
I am on regular panel with Jaipur Golden Hospital, Rohini and Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, Punjabi Bagh. I am head of Urology Department in both these hospitals. You can choose whichever it is convenient to you.

Does prior booking ensure availability of bed in the hospital?
No. In hospitals, booked cases are given priority for admission, but, no bed is kept vacant for booked cases (a hospital is different from a hotel where room is kept vacant even if the guest does not turn up). Booking does confirm your time slot in the operation theatre and your surgery is least likely to be postponed although there may be some delay in getting the allotment of desired bed.

When do I have to make the payment for surgery ?
Unless you are a BPL card holder, as per the current practice of hospitals in Delhi, full estimated bill has to be deposited in advance before surgery. Otherwise, in all probabilities, your file is unlikely to be cleared by the accounts department of the hospital and surgery is likely to be cancelled (except in emergency). I advise you to deposit full estimated amount at the time of admission and get only one receipt to avoid any confusion.

What if my bill crosses the estimate?
As a policy matter, I make it sure that the hospital bill remains roughly the same as per the estimate and I make all efforts to keep my word. Under unforeseen circumstances if the bill moves away from the estimate, I make a personal request to the hospital authorities to go for discount so that you do not have to arrange for extra money. In case the problem is not solved, I wave off my professional fee including consultation and operation charges and try my best not to burden the patient.

Do I get refund in case excess amount is deposited?
Yes. Hospitals are quick in making refund in case excess deposit is there. But, refund is processed only during office hours.

Do I have to buy the medicines?
No. All medicines are provided by the hospitals themselves and the cost is included in the bill. Corporate hospitals do not allow patients to buy medicines of their own for safety reasons.

I have mediclaim; will I get cashless facility?
Yes. You have to submit your papers (photo ID, TPA card and documents related to your disease) with me 4-5 days in advance. Our public relation officer will do the rest. In case your company doesn’t have a tie-up with the hospital or your papers are incomplete, you will have to make full payment as per the insurance rates and later on you can claim the same from your TPA. .

What do I do if I face a problem during hospitalization?
You bring it to the notice of the staff nurse or ward attendant or ward secretary. They will try to sort out the difficulty. In case medical help is required, they will take the help of doctor on duty or senior resident available at that time. In case you are not satisfied with their service, you can talk to me on my mobile phone. I advise you not to trouble the hospital staff unnecessarily lest they should become unco-operative with you. Please do not forget that nurse (respectfully we address her as ‘Sister’) is not a servant; she is a dignified medical attendant doing her pious duty.

Tell me something about the system of charges in the hospital?
As per Delhi culture, professional fee (consultation and operation fee) in the hospitals varies as per the bed category availed by the patient. There are 8 categories in Jaipur Golden Hospital and 5 categories in Maharaja Agrasen Hospital. All the services and usually the material as well is as per the category in the hospitals. For your perusal, list of charges of all services is available at reception.

What about the charges applicable to panel / medi-claim patients?
Schedule of charges are fixed by the corporates and Insurance companies depending on the standard of the hospital and the city where the hospital is placed

Can I get discount?
Please do not ask for discount / concession. Yes, in case the bill crosses the estimate given by me, I wave off my fee to the same extent.