Serious advice needed re likely move to Delhi with ill daughter.

pkbshrew

Hi All

First up, what a great forum! It has answered many questions for me already.

Me and my family; hubby and 19 yr old daughter, currently live in Melbourne, Australia having been transferred here from Wellington, NZ 20 months ago and we've just heard we may be transferring to Delhi. This in itself isn't a huge issue as my husband grew up in Africa and has travelled all over the Asia; including India and we lived for a short time in Indonesia 10 yrs ago.

The issue is that our daughter is very ill; another reason we moved to Aus was to find a doctor to help her - which we did! Her extremely rare condition has been identified and she is much more stable now but needs to take rafts of medication to stay that way. I already control the risk factors pertaining to her condition and although it would be more of a challenge in Delhi I'm pretty sure it is doable.

I guess what I am asking for is info re hospitals, availability of drugs etc in Delhi. The homework I've done so far includes where we would live and nearby medical facilities.

The most probable place to live I think would be Defence Colony. One of the main reasons for this is that I've found what looks like a good hospital nearby; Moolchand Hospital, which has an Immunology Dept. and an Emergency Dept. Does anyone know anything about this hospital? DC also sounds like it has the potential to be a fairly peaceful place to live - or am I wrong on this one?

My plan would be to contact (probably via the companies liaison) the hospital to find out about the availability of her meds. I know that in Indo you could buy just about whatever you wanted and I'm wondering if it is the same in Delhi. There should also be the option of having them couriered in directly I would think/hope if necessary.

I've also found the National Institute of Immunology at Jawaharlal Nehru Uni which has a massive research team, some of which are doing mast cell research. These are the sort of people I would need access to. I would contact them through my daughter's research immunologist here in Melb.

That it so far. Any advice?

Thanks for anything you can throw my way!
Jen

Aishah

Hello Jen and welcome to India Mike!

Whilst I don't know that particular hospital, I have had a couple of friends who have had to have recourse to using hospitals in Delhi (one went to Max, other Apollo) and they both had excellent care there. Most drugs are available here, sometimes with a different name, but ingredients are the same.
Hopefully, some of our Delhi members will come and help you out more specifically than I can.

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delhiwala

Moolchand Hospital is an old and reputed hospital of Delhi. Apart from this, New Delhi has many other good hospitals also, like:

1. Fortis
2. Max
3. Apollo

Indian Institute of Immunology is an academic research institute, without any linkage to JNU. They do not treat patients......

I think there should be no problem on medicine front....Indian Medicine stores may arrange any medicine that you need....

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The crone

I have used the fortis hospital and found them very good

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birds

Defence Colony is very nice to live (I lived there myself for many years) but keep in mind that the traffic in Delhi can be very heavy. So from Def.Col. it may still take at least 20 minutes to reach a hospital (ambulances exist in Delhi but are often not given way so are also stuck).

As for drugs, many are indeed available but many of the new and advanced drugs come much later into the market so may not yet be available.

pkbshrew

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yes, the traffic/speed with which we could get to the hospital is an important consideration as anaphylaxis is a big part of her illness. We need to do some serious thinking about whether we proceed or not. At this point it is feeling too risky. Thanks again.

AwayFromHome

I have personal experience of dealing with very rare conditions, requiring a very high degree of medical expertise, in India.

Bottom line, you may have to pay for it, depending on your insurance plan. And depending on the medical indication, you may have to search for the perfect hospital.

The good news: In the NCR area (Delhi and surroundings) everything is available. Trust me, the issues I have dealt with could not have been treated in most cities in the US.

But, legwork has to be done to establish the facility and the doctor you trust.

obione980

pkbshrew as I'm sure you're aware - Indians are fiercely loyal and full of good intentions - BUT - on this issue you need honest advice, backed up by your own rigorous research.

India is the land of chaos - nearly always well-intentioned chaos - but CHAOS nevertheless.

You don't need that I think!

AwayFromHome

Yes, no denying the chaos bit.

It took us some serious research to find the equivalent meds, the right hospital with the proper expertise.
It was NOT easy.

But as I said earlier, the medical condition we were dealing with is so complex and rare that many cities in the US would not have been able to deal with.

If you have time, are prepared to put in long hours to find the right hospital and specific doctor, you'll be ok. But, as Obione has said, it willl not be the same as in Australia/US etc. YOU will have to do the legwork.

carlaeb

Hi pkbshrew,

Of course I don't know what your daughter's condition is or what is causing her anaphylaxis, but I wanted to point out that the air quality in Delhi is some of the worst in the world. Depending on the season and what you measure- industrial pollution, green house gases, suspended particulate matter, etc- the air quality ranges from the 2nd to around the 13th worst on the planet. No matter what the air is really really bad, and even though some neighborhoods are worse than others, it is really really bad all over Delhi. People with any sort of breathing problems will invariably fall ill there. My asthma was very minor when I first went to Delhi, and after spending a month there I have never fully recovered from the extreme bronchial infection I got there and suffered from asthma for a long time, needed prolonged medication which weakened my lungs, etc. I highly recommend that anyone with preexisting breathing problems stay away from Delhi (and Cairo and Beijing, etc).

Just FYI and another thing to consider if it is relevant to your daughter's anaphylaxis, which it may not be.

birds

I love India for many, many things but the health care services are certainly not among them.

I also did a lot of research in the subject (paid for by the UK ministry of health) and would certainly not recommend India on this front.

Raghu.Kumar

Hi Pkbshrew

Check out the below link which might give you some leads for you to research on hospitals, emergency services, 24/7 chemists etc.

With due respect, I have to disagee with some of the posts here, but India is on top of the chart and on par with the best hospitals in the wrold in terms of medical treatment atleast in the metros. Infrastructure may not be top class in terms of buildings etc, but the doctors are truly world class.

This is my purely my personal opinion.

Regards, Raghu

http://www.medindia.net/directories/...ces_result.asp

MOD NOTE: Enormous quote removed. Please don't cut and paste huge chunks of information particularly if it's available through a link- better to just post the link!

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karuna

I don't think anyone here has questioned the quality of care, more the arrangements for accessing it.

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