Ex-gratia application declined for an urgent surgery

On November 24, 2021, a call was logged with a motivational letter requesting that my son be considered for Ex-gratia for his treatment. The letter noted that the patient's surgery is medically necessary and must be performed under general anesthesia as soon as possible, we have kindly requested for him to be considered for an out of the ordinary authorisation due to his unique medical needs. Since then, I've been passed from pillar to post, always being told that the special cases unit is still busy with our request. We never received any updates from the medical aid, I called numerous times for updates and was told the same thing each time. They asked for prices again in late January 2022, despite the fact that they had been included when we sent the supporting documentation, and they again requested the operation date. That piqued our interest, and we hoped that our son would eventually receive the assistance he requires. They were silent after we supp**** the needed information, and when I inquired about an update, I was told that they were still working on it. After all of this upheaval and waiting for almost three months, on 20 January 2022 we were notified that the application had been declined without a proper explanation and they recommended that we needed to upgrade our current option. Given that we mentioned that this treatment is urgent, I have a problem with the turnaround time. My son relies on this treatment to ensure that his braces treatment runs smoothly. He has been going to the Orthodontist for checkups (Which we are paying for) for no reason other than the fact that he need this operation in order to progress. I have the impression that Bonitas does not care about its customers, that they do not take them seriously, because I now have to begin a new process to upgrade to an option that we cannot even afford. Bonitas is unprofessional and has no idea what the word "urgent" means. I don’t understand why it takes so long for the application to be approved or denied. I'm quite dissatisfied with the service I've received and believe I've been inconvenienced and ignored by Bonitas. My son has been suffering and waiting for for a long time to go for his surgery, and I've always had to call in to obtain an update.