Access to patients

Healthcare in the US has all sorts of problems and one among them is ‘access to care’. I recently visiting India after a few years. This was not a vacation but to see my grand mother who was counting her days. She was in a hospital ICU in Hyderabad. I reached Hyderabad in the morning and got the information that she is in a critical status. When I rushed to the hospital with my mother, we were denied access to see my grand mother. My mother was already in tears and wanted to see her mother. Everyone from the elevator person, the nurse, physicians assistant, the guard at the ICU and the doctor denied access to see the patient. After a few ‘under the table’ deals and creating a scene outside the ICU, we were let inside. It was not a pleasant site and my grand mother was not conscious to recognize her daughter and her grand son. Tears rolled down my mother’s eyes. After a few moments, we came out of the ICU and came back to our home only to hear that my grand mother passed away 30 minutes after we left the ICU.

This had me thinking. Why were close family members denied access? ‘Access to patients’ is a problem that is highly rampant in India. This is more of a stupid hospital policy issue that acts as a barrier to access to patients at critical times.