Inside the chaos at Pristyn Care
₹4 lakh, involves the patient swallowing a pill, which inflates into a balloon once inside the stomach. This limits the amount of food a person can eat and forces a calorie deficit, resulting in weight loss. On 20 May, Panchal was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai’s Goregaon suburb to undergo this procedure.
Just about half an hour later, however, she felt pain and unease, started vomiting, and began asking the doctors to remove the capsule from her stomach, according to a family member who asked not to be named. Initially, her doctor counselled her that the uneasiness and nausea is a normal reaction to the procedure. But Panchal’s situation continued to deteriorate over the next few days.
What transpired next is now the subject of an investigation but raises unsettling questions about this emerging model of healthcare delivery. Pristyn Care, founded in 2018 by former Urban Company executive Harsimarbir Singh and doctor couple Vaibhav Kapoor and Garima Sawhney, partners with hospitals to lease infrastructure such as operation theatres and leverages digital marketing and a large sales team to convert online search queries into consultation and surgeries across a host of specialties such as gynaecology, ENT, urology, orthopaedics, dentistry and others. Elective surgeries differ from emergency surgeries in that they are planned in advance and patients tend to consult multiple doctors and also shop for the best offers.
Pristyn Care advertises competitive prices and discounts for surgeries across the board. It’s a venture capital-funded startup, with attendant growth expectations. The company has so far raised $177 million across five rounds.
Read more on livemint.com
