My mother went for further medical examination today to the same panel clinic (in Delhi) where she went the first time. They said the additional test is required due to "abnormality noted on current chest x-ray".
Taking the additional medical test was never an issue, but the process that my mother has to go through at this age is what I would call nothing less than gruesome and torturous.
She showed up at time for her appointment with a chest specialist. The chest specialist spoke to her for less than 2 minutes, charged a good sum of money, then referred her to a CT scan which is not available at the panel hospital. For that, she has to go to another hospital of the panel physician's choice. So she went to the other hospital the same day. There, they did the CT scan which was all clear. With the report in hand, she returned to the panel physician's office. The panel physician said that there is an extra test which is basically requires sputum smears culture for 3 consecutive days. The results of this test are available only after 8 weeks. This test has to be taken again at a hospital of their choice in a different adjoining city (Gurgaon) between the hours of 7:30 am and 8 am only. There is no other way.
So now we have to find a way to make it to the other city early morning for 3 consecutive days and wait for 2 months before we get a report.
What a horrendous inconvenient process. My mother is 70+ and she has to go through this. There is no consideration for her age. There has to be a better way.
I am feeling so disappointed and don't know what to do now.