Got Rupees?

The mere existence of distinct "paying" and non-paying wards surprised me. I suppose I expected it, but I didn't expect the discrepancy to be so clearly labeled. When I was passing by the ward entitled "Paying Ward," I naively asked the med student I was following what that ward was for. He looked at me confused and said he didn't understand the question. In my head, it was a section where patients pay up their fees or perhaps an odd misspelling of "pain" (believe there are some hilarious spelling mistakes here). It never crossed my mind that they would actually state the economic distinction between wards, but then again perhaps my brain is so used to the political correctness of the US that when someone simply points out the obvious inequality I can't process it.

There appear to be several distinct "levels" of general pediatric inpatient wards depending on how much one can pay. Conditions range from 12 beds stuffed into a room all the way to nice private rooms with air conditioning. Fortunately from what I've observed the doctors seem to devote the same attention to their patients regardless of which ward they belong too. I'd be interested to see outcome statistics for the various wards. Sadly, I can't imagine that having twelve sick children packed in one room without even curtains to divide them is very sanitary.