Medical Attention, once again

Jordan has had a sore throat, stuffed nose, and headache over the last few days. Most recent new symptom was dizziness. We might just wait this stuff out in the US, but given some of the scarier strains of disease here (dengue, malaria) we opted to go to the doctor. There are lots of private doctors around, often with storefront offices. The signs announcing their practices are often dilapidated, dirty, falling off the wall where they are posted. Not inspiring places to visit. We went instead to the Fortis hospital where Adam and I spent a week in August. They have out patient services too. Conclusion to our visit there: Jordan has sinusitis.

The experience at Fortis was again, lovely. There was a fair amount of waiting in lines, to schedule an appointment with the internist (and pay), then to schedule an appointment with the ENT (and pay), and finally to schedule blood tests and an X-ray (and pay). Jordan recently got Indian health insurance, but we didn’t have the insurance card yet and so we paid for everything with cash/credit cards. It is easy to glorify and romanticize “the way things are at home, and how much more efficient things are.” But in this case, India beats out home experiences, hands down. If we needed to go from the internist to an ENT with our home doctors, we would have needed 2 separate appointments; they wouldn’t have been consecutive. The X-rays would have required yet another appointment. Results for blood tests would come the next day; at Fortis, they gave us a username and password so that we can log on ourselves later in the day to get results. Each doctor visit, with no insurance at all, was 700 rupees ($15). A whole array of meds (antibiotics etc.) was 500 rupees ($10). I am delighted to see quality medical services so affordable. But then, they are only affordable by OUR standards, with our US salaries.  If a driver or housekeeper earns all of $200 - $250 month (and those are the GOOD salaries, for maids/drivers working for expats)…then a $40 medical bill counts for 20% of their monthly wage; not affordable at all…But there are probably more affordable clinics than Fortis, which is probably high end (in quality, and price).