Awful treatment at this hospital

My 93 -year-old mother was sent to this facility (ARWYP Medical Centre in Kepmpton Park) after suffering a cardiac incident. She arrived at the hospital at about 9:30 PM and was sent to the "Resus room" (used very lightly as there was no doctor or nurse in attendance on her admission or for more than an hour after her arrival). After the paramedic had handed over eventually he told the sister that her ECG was not looking good and she needed to see a doctor. In the meantime a lady from AMPATH drew bloods for testing and also asked us to sign a form for swabs to be taken as she is old and may have something they need to know. We were told it would cost R 750.00 so we agreed and signed. (actually cost R 5 000.00 when we queried we were told the R 750.00 was only for the lady taking the swabs??). Eventually a doctor came to see my mom and said she needed to have a drip put up and medication administered. They did not do this as they said they were waiting for a file. When we inquired they said we needed to pay and would bring an estimate. About 30 minutes later we were presented with an estimate of R 92 000.00 which we then went to pay. When we got to the reception desk it was about 12:00 midnight and we were told that we had to pay R 300 000.00 or they would not treat her. After much battling we managed to pay R 250 000.00 into the account and had to sign a promise to pay the R 50 000.00 the next day. At about 1:15 AM my mom was admitted to "high care" and eventually fell asleep and we left.

On Saturday morning the family went to visit her and she was very unhappy and said she wanted to go home. We then asked to speak to the doctor who was treating her and were told that the nursing staff cannot contact the doctor and that we could wait outside the ward until he decided to come to the ward (we still did not know why she was in High care and what she was being treated for). The nursing staff said she was being treated conservatively but they did not know for what (in high care??).

On Saturday afternoon we again visited and we were told that the doctor had not been and they were not allowed to contact him. We then requested to call a doctor who is a family friend and were told that we could not do that as they would ask us to leave or take the phone away. A while after this a person approached my mom's bed and said he had been sent by Dr Grigorov the cardiologist to fit a halter. He then did this and left.

On Sunday morning we again visited and found my mom in tears and begging us to take her home. She said that she had been left on her own in "High Care" since being woken at 5;00 and that not one person had been to see her. (I would think that in :High Care: there would be a sister in charge and at least nursing staff 24/7). They had not left her with a bell to call. We then requested an RHT (refusal of hospital treatment) form so that we could take her home. Then somebody (matron or supervisor) came to see us and said she would find the doctor. She then found a physician (who we did not even know had seen me mom) who then said that she did not know why my mom was in "High Care" and she discharged her.

When we went to dress my mom to take her home we discovered that she had requested to use the bathroom as 6:00 am and nobody had bothered to take her and she had defecated and had been lying in it since the morning. She had to be scrubbed clean before we could take her home.

While this was happening Dr Grigorov appeared and looked at her chart and started leaving the ward. When we requested that he explain to us what was going on he thrust a card in my face and said "see me in my office at 8:30 AM tomorrow morning and I only one of you dont want (expletive) all of you in my office. At 8:30 on Monday I call his office to be told he comes in at about 9 or 9:30. I asked for him to call me or if I could call him back and was told he would not speak to me on the phone as it contravenes the POPI (protection of information act) he would not be able to identify me on the phone (although he does not know me in person either)

I honestly feel that these people totally destroyed her dignity by the way that they treated my mother. I would strongly advise nobody to take their loved ones to this facility as they are not able to treat any one with any kind of respect whether it be patient on family.