The order comes at the end of a consultation, almost as an afterthought. "We'll need a CT" or "let's get an MRI done", and the patient is already being handed a slip before they have processed what it means. In Indian hospitals, public and private alike, imaging is frequently the first move rather than the last resort. That is not always wrong. But a scan is a medical intervention with its own risks, costs, and downstream consequences, and the patient who asks nothing before agreeing to one is not being cooperative, they are being passive in a situation that rewards questions.
