How can the ONLY private Hospital in Mafikeng (Victoria Hospital) be able to de***** customers with bad service?

I have never seen such sly financial practices performed by a private hospital before and a hospital in a more shoddy condition than Victoria Private Hospital (also called Victoria Hospital, which is part of the Clinix Group of Private Hospitals, located in Mafikeng/Mahikeng). We visited the Victoria PRIVATE hospital on 13 September 2018 with a medical emergency with our baby. We were informed that since it is after-hours, we needed to pay a R 1 000 deposit which would go towards a medical examination (performed by a normal GP) and to pay for any medicine prescribed. Should the prescribed medicine (and consultation) be in excess of this amount, we would pay the difference, but if the consultation and medicine be less, the hospital would reimburse the amount which was overcharged. The admin-lady informed us that in the majority of cases, customers are reimbursed. I want to implicitly state that the personnel were extremely friendly and very helpful, however, the hospital is in a very shoddy condition and their financial bookkeeping de*****s customers. Yes, for North West Province, the hospital is light years ahead the public hospitals, but compared to private hospitals, one gets that feeling that maintenance is not done at all. The hospital compares to the good quality PUBLIC hospitals found in the Western Cape (which we all know has the better quality public hospitals), and in some cases Victoria Hospital can be judged to be worse off than some of the public hospitals found in the Western Cape.

However, this is not the major issue. The issue at hand is that it is now no less than 60 days after our visit (where we received BASIC over-the-counter medicine) and we have, as of yet, received ZERO money back. Yes, the amount would most probably be R 250, but it is the principle of the matter, namely ETHICS, which bothers me. How many other people simply FORGET about the reimbur*****t which they are due? After a month transpired, we discussed it with a few people who lived in Mafikeng for a while and they stated that one of the share-holders is a highly influential ANC politician (MEC or some high ranking director or something in the Department of Health) and that we can forget about receiving back any money. To explain the appalling condition of the hospital, one of the private GP's actually showed us an X-ray of a lady who broke her elbow. The x-ray report (compiled by a SPECIALIST at Victoria Hospital), stated that there were no fractures. The doctor did NOT point out the fracture, the x-ray were simply showed to us and the question were asked if we saw something "out of place". Neither my wife or I have any medical background and we both immediately saw the fracture quite clearly. We asked the doctor why this was not reported, and the Doctor stated that it does not help to report it, since complaints are put in file 13 and never leads to any investigations being done. We progressed to ask the doctor why no other private hospital opened up their doors in Mafikeng due to the appalling state of affairs at Victoria Hospitals, after which we were informed that doctors were not supposed to discuss other medical institutions but that the license to open another private hospital were blocked due to politically connected shareholders having shares in Victoria Hospital.

What bothers me, is that Mafikeng is the provincial capital of North West Province. All the head offices of the provincial government are located in Mafikeng, as well as numerous tenderpreneurs. Yes, there is even a Bugatti Veyron and a Ferrari F40 in town. So there are more than enough people amongst the three quarter of a million residents to justify a private hospital and some of the doctors in Victoria Hospital are VERY good. However, why is a hospital like this allowed to function and de***** people slyly from their money, and a lot of other MEDICAL SPECIALISTS cannot do the most basic of things in their job? The overall majority of the population of Mafikeng is black with very few people of other colour. However, if this was done in towns with a lot of indian or white customers, this hospital would have closed its doors a LONG time ago and a better private hospital would have opened its doors ages ago. At this stage, a LOT of people in Mafikeng drive 3 hours to Potchefstroom or Klerksdorp to visit the private hospitals there (some even drive to Johannesburg/Pretoria). In case of an emergency, one cannot afford such a long drive. What is the use then for the public to work their behinds off to be able to afford a medical aid and be able to utilize better quality medical attention at private hospitals, when in fact the ONLY private hospital's quality of service is comparable to some PUBLIC hospitals located elsewhere in South Africa?

I searched around and realized that Mafikeng people are not used to complain. The overall majority are peace-loving individuals who simply "accept" the status quo, because they do not like to "stir" (search for "complaints" in Mafikeng on hellopeter, and you will realize that there are very few, due to the Tswana population not being in a cultural paradigm of complaining).

However, I simply cannot stand idly by and allow ********* businesses like this to de***** the lovely people who live here. A medical institution should be on another level compared to any other service industries. I would be ashamed to work at such a hospital, much the more hold shares in such a shoddy business.