Terms of Use

1. Agreement to these terms

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the website aikyahealth.co and its sub-pages (the "Website"), including the appointment enquiry form, newsletter, WhatsApp link and any content we publish. By using the Website you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Website.

These Terms are an electronic record under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made under it, and do not require a physical or digital signature.

2. About AIKYA

The Website is owned and operated by AIKYA Pain and Spine Centre ("AIKYA", "we", "us", "our"), S-10, Silver Springs Layout, Munekolalu Village, Varthur Hobli, Marathahalli, Bengaluru 560037, Karnataka, India. Clinical care at the centre is led by Dr. Kalpana K, MBBS, MD, FIPP (USA), FIAPM, Medical Reg. No. 70967.

3. Medical information disclaimer

• Reading the Website, submitting a form, sending a WhatsApp message or subscribing to the newsletter does not create a doctor–patient relationship. A doctor–patient relationship begins only when a doctor at AIKYA accepts you as a patient at a consultation (in person or by tele-consultation).
• Articles, FAQs, videos and condition pages describe conditions and treatments in general terms. They are reviewed by a qualified doctor, but they cannot account for your individual history, examination findings or imaging. Never ignore, delay or stop medical advice from your own doctor because of something you read here.
• Descriptions of procedures, recovery times, "same-day discharge", relief timelines and patient stories reflect typical experience or individual cases. Individual results vary. No outcome, success rate or result is guaranteed, and nothing on the Website should be read as a promise of cure or relief.
• Pain medicine and the evidence behind treatments evolve. We update content periodically, but we do not warrant that every page is complete, current or error-free at the moment you read it.

4. Emergencies

Messages sent through the Website or WhatsApp are read during consulting hours (Monday to Saturday, 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM) and are not monitored continuously.

5. Appointment requests

• Submitting the "Appointment Enquiry" form or messaging us on WhatsApp is a request, not a confirmed booking. An appointment is confirmed only when our care coordinator calls, messages or emails you with a date and time.
• We aim to call back within one working hour during consulting hours, and same-day slots are offered subject to availability. We cannot guarantee a particular doctor, time or date.
• You agree to give accurate contact details and a truthful description of your concern, and to tell us about any change in your condition before your visit.
• Please inform us as early as possible if you need to cancel or reschedule, so that the slot can be offered to another patient. Repeated no-shows may result in future appointments requiring advance payment.
• A consultation at the centre is subject to the clinic's registration forms, consent forms and patient policies, which you will be asked to read and sign on arrival. Those documents prevail over these Terms for anything that happens inside the clinic.

6. Tele-consultations

We offer a free first tele-consultation by phone or video. Tele-consultations are provided in accordance with the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines issued by the Board of Governors in supersession of the Medical Council of India (March 2020) and the applicable National Medical Commission regulations. By requesting a tele-consultation you agree that:

• You will provide your correct name, age, contact details and, where asked, proof of identity, and confirm your consent to be consulted by telemedicine.
• A tele-consultation has limits. The doctor cannot physically examine you and may rely on your description, your reports and any images you share. The doctor may decide that an in-person visit, imaging or tests are needed before any opinion or prescription can be given, and may decline to advise remotely where it is not appropriate or not permitted.
• Prescriptions, if any, are issued at the doctor's sole clinical discretion and only for medicines that may lawfully be prescribed by telemedicine.
• Any opinion given during a tele-consultation is based on the information available at that time and is not a substitute for a full assessment at the centre.
• You are responsible for your own device, internet connection and the privacy of your surroundings during a video consultation. Please do not record a consultation without the doctor's consent.
• If you are booking for a child or a person who cannot consent for themselves, you confirm that you are their parent or lawful guardian.

7. Fees, insurance and EMI

• Consultation, investigation, procedure and rehabilitation fees are explained to you at the centre, and a written plan with costs is provided at your consultation before any treatment is scheduled. Any figures mentioned on the Website, by phone or on WhatsApp before a consultation are indicative only.
• Payment is due as agreed with the centre's billing desk. Receipts and invoices are issued for every payment.
• Insurance assistance: our insurance desk helps you check eligibility and submit pre-authorisation and claim documents. Whether a treatment is covered, and the amount approved, is decided solely by your insurer or TPA under your policy. We are not responsible for an insurer's decision, delay or rejection, and you remain responsible for any amount not covered.
• EMI facility: EMI options are offered through third-party finance partners. The partner's credit decision, interest, fees and repayment terms are governed by your agreement with that partner, not by these Terms. AIKYA is not a lender.
• Refunds, if any, are handled under the clinic's refund policy, which is available at the billing desk.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Website for any unlawful purpose or in breach of these Terms;
• Submit false, misleading or someone else's personal information, or book appointments you do not intend to keep;
• Upload or send anything that is defamatory, obscene, abusive, infringing, or that contains malware;
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Website, its server, forms, databases or any connected system, or to probe, scan or test its security;
• Scrape, crawl, copy or republish the Website's content in bulk, or use automated tools to interact with it without our written permission;
• Harass or abuse our staff through any channel, including phone and WhatsApp.

We may suspend or block access to the Website, and decline to provide non-emergency services, to anyone who breaches these Terms.

9. Content and intellectual property

The Website and everything on it, including text, articles, FAQs, photographs, videos, illustrations, the AIKYA name and logo, page layouts and code, are owned by or licensed to AIKYA and are protected under the Copyright Act, 1957, the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and other applicable laws. You may view, print or download pages for your personal, non-commercial use, provided you keep all copyright and other notices intact. Any other use, including reproduction, modification, distribution, framing or commercial use of the content, requires our prior written permission. Names and logos of professional bodies, awards, insurers and third parties belong to their respective owners.

10. Reviews, testimonials and submissions

• If you send us a review, testimonial, story, photograph or video, you confirm that it is your own genuine experience, that you have the right to share it, and that we may publish it on the Website and on our social media in accordance with our Privacy Policy, using your first name or initials unless you agree otherwise. You may withdraw this permission at any time, and we will remove the content from the properties we control.
• Reviews shown on the Website are selected from patient feedback and Google reviews and do not represent every patient's experience.
• We may edit submissions for length and clarity, and decline to publish any submission, at our discretion.
• We may use ideas and suggestions you send us about the Website or our services without any obligation to you.

11. Third-party links and embedded content

The Website contains links to and embeds from third-party services, including YouTube, Instagram, Google Maps, Google reviews and WhatsApp, and may link to insurers, finance partners and professional bodies. These are provided for convenience. We do not control them, do not endorse their content, and are not responsible for their availability, accuracy, security or privacy practices. Your use of any third-party service is governed by that service's own terms.

12. No warranties

The Website is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we make no warranty, express or implied, that the Website will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that defects will be corrected, that the Website or its server is free of viruses, or that the information on it is accurate, complete or current. Nothing in this section limits the duty of care owed to you as a patient during clinical treatment at the centre.

13. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, AIKYA, its doctors, staff and service providers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or any loss of data, arising out of your use of, or inability to use, the Website, including reliance on any information published on it, interruption of the Website, or the acts or omissions of any third-party service linked from it.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under Indian law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or your rights as a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. These Terms govern use of the Website; your rights and our obligations in relation to medical treatment are governed by the consent forms and patient policies you sign at the centre and by applicable medical law and professional regulation.

14. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless AIKYA, its doctors and staff from any claim, loss or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Website, or any content you submit to us in violation of a third party's rights.

15. Privacy

Our collection and use of your personal and health information is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. By ticking the consent box on our forms you agree to be contacted by AIKYA about your enquiry.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Subject to any mandatory law giving you the right to approach a consumer forum or other authority, the courts at Bengaluru, Karnataka have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Website. Before starting any proceedings, please contact us under section 18 so that we can try to resolve the matter with you directly.

17. General

• Changes: we may update these Terms from time to time. The version published on this page is the current one. Continued use of the Website after a change means you accept the updated Terms.
• Severability: if any part of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest continues in full effect.
• No waiver: our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
• Entire agreement: these Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and AIKYA about use of the Website. Clinical consent forms and clinic policies govern treatment at the centre.
• Language: these Terms are written in English. If a translation is provided, the English version prevails.

18. Contact and grievance

Questions about these Terms, complaints about the Website, requests to remove content, or any other grievance can be sent to our Grievance Officer, who is appointed under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made under it.

For patient complaints about clinical care, please also ask at the reception desk for the centre's patient grievance process.