TESTING THE HEART
Heart care has become an industry. A number of heart institutes are being opened every day worth crores of rupees, in one or the other part of the country. The main aim of these institutions is to make money by performing as many bypass surgeries or angioplasties, because these operations only can earn astronomical amount of money. Estimations of Rs. 3 Lacs to Rs. 5 Lacs for one such operation are not uncommon. Some of the hospitals still perform these operations for as low as 65000, if they are in a small city like Coimbatore or Varanasi! In these hospitals, necessary and unnecessary investigations or tests are also performed as a secondary source of revenue. Every cardiologist sends for a battery of investigations. Blood samples are drawn several times from the patients in a day in these hospitals. Many of these investigations are also done for the outdoor (OPD) patients also. The other day one of my patients told me that for tests only he has spent about Rs, 50000 in a heart hosp...