How to Choose the Right Doctor?
We were in a state of shock & disbelief on receiving a biopsy report confirming cancer in the Urinary Bladder of my 70 years’ old elder brother.?He already had Kidney stone problems which too needed an urgent surgery before treating him for cancer. With the grace of God his disease has been diagnosed as curable and his treatment is proceeding in the right direction.
Treatment of a disease like cancer is for a life time so a lot of homework is necessary in choosing the Right Doctor. I am sharing the lessons re-learnt from a patient’s perspective which may be of value to the healthcare professionals, patients and their family members & well-wishers.?
Though I had worked as a Director in a large network of hospitals, yet I panicked and forgot the lessons learnt due to sheer panic. My first thought was to talk to a couple of doctors based on my comfort level with them and through referrals of friends & relatives.?I had almost decided to take my brother to one of the hospitals when I talked to a former colleague of mine at a hospital, who simply asked me if the decision was solely based on my comfort with a known doctor. This was like a wakeup call and I recalled the processes I had learnt during my stint in the healthcare domain on how to choose the right hospital and the right doctor based on the disease.?
Choosing the Right Doctor
Experience
On comparing the Doctors on 3 key parameters, I zeroed in on Dr Shafiq Ahmed, Director and Senior Consultant at Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, Gurugram in Haryana, India. His experience matched the patient’s disease profile in the Kidney and Urinary Bladder area.?This combined with his experience of over 300 robotic surgeries for prostate, kidney and urinary bladder cancer & over 9000 urological procedures at the age of 45 years made us feel more comfortable with our choice.?
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Qualifications
Dr. Shafiq Ahmed is an US credentialed robotic uro-oncologist and specializes in robotic radical prostatectomy, robotic radical cystectomy and robotic partial nephrectomy for treatment of patients suffering from prostate, urinary bladder and kidney cancers in addition to general urologic problems in men and women.?
An MBBS, MS (Surgery), DNB (Urology), MNAMS with 15 publications, including 3 book chapters, to his credit in leading medical journals and his work experience at some of the most respected hospitals in India assured us further about his credentials as one of the best Doctors in the Delhi NCR region of India.?
Patients’ Feedback
This to me was the most important factor as in many cases top rated Surgeons operate on the patient and leave the treatment to junior doctors post-surgery. Their busy schedule also makes them unresponsive in-spite of the availability of all kinds of digital interfaces. Dr Shafiq Ahmad was rated as a 5 Star Doctor in Google Reviews yet I wanted to check from some of his patients. To my pleasant surprise every patient gave a very high recommendation on his competence as well as responsiveness.??
Now that he is treating my brother, he always responds to messages and phone calls as early as possible even if he is in the OT room. Meeting with him is a pleasure as he explains every procedure and treatment in clinical as well as lay man’s language. He gives the patient and the attendants an equal chance to give as much input as possible. No irritation even on google questions.