Fear Of Unknown And Why We Should Not Avoid Preventive Health Check Up
Lavanya(name changed) has always been a pretty and petite woman. Blessed with good metabolic rate, she has never had to diet or exercise to stay slim. Not even after she delivered her two babies. Some of her friends thought she was lucky some even envied her perfect body. Lavanya knew she was blessed but she always tried to control her food, so that she never has to worry about gaining weight. When she turned 36 she discovered a slight protrusion on her neck, she dismissed it without much care as her kid’s exams were approaching, she couldn’t worry about it. Right after the exams, she had an international holiday coming up and while she was feeling a bit worried about the protrusion now, she couldn’t cancel now as all their bookings were done. She decided to deal with her issues once she was back.
Off she went with her family, had a lovely holiday surviving on painkillers. Trouble was brewing in the background but she kept pushing it away. When she got back home, her condition could not be ignored any further and she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. The protrusion was now a lump. She spent the next few years fighting the disease and taking injections and painful medication. Now she really wonders if she had gone for regular preventive health check-up, she would have crushed the disease in the seed.
Sunil(name changed) is a bachelor living in a swanky apartment with his friends. His office is just across the road and while he is still not 30 he feels his life goals are being met. He is a workaholic and his usual days end up being 12-14 hours of work and then he believes in partying hard over the weekend. He is climbing the corporate ladder fast and on top of the world. One morning while leaving for work, he just lost consciousness and fell down near his building gate, hitting his head hard. People gathered around him and using their presence of mind, they rushed him to the nearest hospital. The next few days were spent battling for his life in an ICU. What Sunil hadn’t known was that he had developed a slight aneurysm in his brain and it had burst that day.
These are not two hypothetical stories but regular people around me and I can state more such incidences which always makes me wonder why people don’t go for annual preventive health checks? These may cost no more than that branded dress or shoes you might want to buy but the benefits are uncountable. Indus health Plus is one such organisation which is making this easier for you. They have over 122 centres in 78 cities and over 5 lakh customers.
I decide to probe more and on a telephonic call with Mr. Amol Naikawadi, Joint Managing Director,Indus Health Plus, I put across this question.
So why according to you do we skip these preventive check-ups?
We all have heard about the phrase ‘prevention is better than cure’, but we seldom realize it’s worth. We have this traditional mindset of opting for curative measures than preventive measures. It is but natural that a person feels nervous to go to a hospital and get the tests done. The fear of getting detected an ailment and then taking some medication or surgery is a paramount concern for most of the people. Many Indians assume that preventive health care packages are a marketing gimmick of preventive health Plus companies. This is further suspected by the assumption that hospitals and doctors are also involved in some malpractices and hence people often do not want to trust the hospitals or doctors. There is also this assumption that preventive health Plus packages are costly and time-consuming. Many hospitals don’t provide the reports on the same day and people have to travel or visit the hospital again the next day or some other day for collecting reports. They assume that such packages are expensive and are not affordable. These prevent us or rather make us irresponsible towards health issues that will get bigger in the future.
In India, there’s an ever-increasing list of, what the doctors have termed as lifestyle diseases in diabetes and heart ailments due to rising cholesterol, asthma, obesity and some more scary names we choose not to mention.
Where does Indus Health come in picture?
To make preventive health check-up affordable, Indus health Plus offers some great packages at attractive costs and other benefits too. There are three kinds of packages for different age groups; Essentia(18-25 years), Superia(25-35 years) and Optima(35 years onwards). To know more about these packages click here. Once you register and pay for the package Indus help executives will guide your way throughout and other benefits are as follows;
- They have dedicated call centres who follow up and timely reminders from the customer care
- Packages are tailor made to suit the needs and ages of people. The costs of these packages are 30-40% lower than the cumulative costs of all the tests. By generating volumes they are able to pass on lower cost benefits to their consumers.
- Health cards: Indus customer loyalty cards get you discounts on medical expenses beyond the packages as well.
- Comfort: On arrival at the venue, an Indus health Plus executive is assigned to you, who will explain you the tests and the procedures. Bringing you to a state of calm. There is a great deal of anxiety which you may feel when you go for such tests and in the age of nuclear families some of us have to go for these on our own. But having someone assigned to you, calming your nerves can be reassuring.
Advantages over other packages:
- You get an appointment within 24 hours if required.
- All your tests and counselling happens under one roof so you don’t have to run around for different tests.
- Gives all results in one day along with the doctor’s advice. However, certain test results like pap smear might take 2-3 days more.
- All your test result records are also Electronic Health Records maintained online and you are given an access to it. So even if you lose a report or are travelling, all you have to do is access the report online.
- You can book the package today and have it valid for the next one year.
- You also get a tax exemption from the government of India.
- The pricing for the package remains the same across India.
I don’t think I can stress more on the need for preventive health check-up. Please do not be casual with your health and definitely check out the benefits that such a company offers. We would love to hear from you on how you handle your health and if you have any experiences with Indus health Plus.
disclaimer: This is a sponsored post and I have written it with information provided by Indus Health team and visiting their center. However, I haven’t tried their packages. The picture used is for representational purposes only. The incidents mentioned are picked from real people although the names have been changed.
