day-to-day extender benefit DOES NOT WORK!

I have been a member of discovery health for several years and am hugely disappointed in how they have re-structured the day-to-day extender benefit when one has exhausted their medical aid funds.

Previously you had a certain number of "free" and "physical visits" to your GP once you exhausted your funds - the number of visits depended on the number of dependents on your plan.

The new day-to-day extender benefit structure DOES NOT WORK!

You have to first consult a GP within the discovery network virtually or telephonically via the doctors connect care app or you have to go to a pharmacy in the discovery network to see a nurse who will first assess you and then if she/he believes you are sick enough she/he will connect you in the room with a virtual doctor and then the doctor will refer you further to see a doctor/specialist in person if he/she thinks its necessary.

I have been suffering for more than 5 days with severe abdominal pain and lower back pain, not severe enough for me to believe I needed to treat it as an emergency but severe enough for me to know that it needed a doctors assessment. I also have a severe earache and one-sided throat pain (brought on by recent swimming I believe).

My medical aid funds are depleted so I attempted to tap into this "extender benefit"

1. First I downloaded the doctors connect care app 2. The app picked up doctors in my surrounding area (Fourways). I attempted to call more than 13 doctors and had no luck booking an online consult. Some numbers did not exist, most calendars of the doctors were scratched out for the whole month of June meaning no availability, other doctors had left the practices, 1 was having network issues and the vast majority of them said they don't use the app anymore and only do physical consults. 3. I attempted to search for doctors outside of my area and that too was a fruitless exercise. Same story as above 4. I then called Discovery and was advised to go to a pharmacy and to see a nurse. Needless to say, you also have to phone around to multiple pharmacies as most don't do walk ins - so this is an exercise of googling and searching numbers and then phoning and hoping for the best. 5. I luckily got seen by a nurse at a Dischem pharmacy because a patient was running late. The nurse checked all my vitals and then told me to go and pee in a cup to make sure I didn't have a bladder infection. So here I was - sick, weak and riddled with pain in my abdomen and back, trekking the distance to find the closest public toilet to get her a sample. I was so annoyed and ****ed off at this point because all I wanted to do was see a darn doctor, get my meds and go home and rest! The nurse also checked my ears and determined that I have "mucus" in my right ear. At this point I was feeling a bit anxious because I was not sure if this was within her capacity to diagnose. Why do we go to GP's if nurses are just as qualified??? Following all of this physical examination stuff - she linked me up with an online doctor. He asked me some questions and based on the nurses finding as well as the described symptoms I mentioned to him, he diagnosed me with an ear infection and also referred me for a sonar scan based on what I told him. I'm all good with the sonar referral and think its the right thing to do but I was not comfortable to take antibiotics for my ear and was not convinced with the nurses findings. Maybe because I have never been diagnosed like this before by a nurse.

I basically solved nothing today. In my fragile state, It took me multiple phone calls at my own expense, lots of online searching, a trip to the pharmacy to see a nurse and then an online consult that could hardly confirm anything and a referral for a sonar which is going to be another painstaking exercise - find one in the Discovery network or pay out of your a$$!

This day-to-day extender is designed to frustrate you! It is not a benefit but a major inconvenience! Whoever came up with this bull**** needs to be fired! What sick and ailing person wants to have to deal with this new, tedious and broken process!

Discovery is obviously trying to curb excessive and unnecessary visits to the GP - for whatever reasons - they are looking to reduce claims and save money at the patients expense!

I literally felt like I had no medical aid cover today and felt like I was going through the process that one would have to at a government institute.

How messed up is it that we don't get to choose our preferred doctor, if your doctor is not on their network or using this useless doctors care app - you are *****ed.

Our personal family doctors hold so much of our medical history (some that discovery wont have on record) - they are ultimately the best people to diagnose us. Going about using random and available online doctors as I had to do today is not effective. He/she will diagnose you on what they are told and on the symptoms you are presenting or describing to them in that moment, if there is something serious or underlying - they have no way of linking your current problem to a pre-existing condition - this means of consulting is totally in-effective and dangerous! We should only be using random doctors when its an absolute emergency or when our own private GP's are not available.

It is so evident of the lack of compassion and empathy Discovery has for its members - its all business for them! The less we can claim the more they can gain and this day-to-day extender benefit is proof of that!

In conclusion, Discovery pays the nurse, then the virtual doctor and then the physical doctor if need be but they are hoping that the consult starts and ends at the point of the nurse so that they can save! The old way worked! why the heck did they change it if it was not for them saving on claims.

I'm still trying to get over what it took me today to get absolutely no-where!

Discovery holds such a large share of the market - corporates should give their employees more options to choose from - I would have left this scheme ages ago!

Who is reimbursing me for all these useless calls I made today and all the inconvenience suffered physically and mentally? probably no-one!

What a joke!