Disappointed client

I am not here to give you a bad review, but this seems to be the only place where we get a response.

After an incident my son was taken to Meulmed hospital for a possible neck/back injury. Fortunately, it wasn't too serious.

My reason for writing here is because the whole process was very stressful. As soon as I was informed that my son would have to be taken to hospital by ambulance, I tried phoning your call centre (just to hear where to go, what to do etc.). Needless to say, nobody ever answered the phone. One of the teachers also tried phoning without any answer either.

I don't want to waste your time with the whole story so I will get to the point.

1. The hospital wouldn't do a CT scan unless my son was admitted, but at that point they didn't know if admission was necessary. They said Discovery wasn't available for authorization, so either they admitted him (a 9 year old to stay there by himself as I wouldn't be allowed to stay with him) or the alternative is that I pay cash. Afterwards, I saw on my plan that CT scans do get covered under specialist benefit and under hospital. So why was this an issue? I again tried phoning the call centre myself and again there was never an answer. In the end the Dr agreed to do a regular x-ray and then a CT if needed (which fortunately wasn't).

2. After this the Dr said his neck was sprained and the nurse put a neck brace on him and said we can go home. Now I have to pay for the brace out of pocket as this is also not something my plan covers - even though they just gave it to him with no explanation of me having to pay it etc. (I couldn't find anything about this in the online brochures - according to me, anything that happens in hospital gets covered, especially emergencies)

Seriously, paying over R7k a month for medical aid and in a dire time of need, I might as well not have had one. I had so many issues and upfront payments and now more bills coming afterwards.

I have been on Discovery for 16+ years and really haven't had major problems, but this whole experience was disappointing. I try do my part with Network Drs and hospitals, but even there I have co-payments.

I am grateful that my son is ok and that it all worked out, but I wanted you to be aware of the above. Surely the communication must be better. And how about answering your phones or having a button for "emergency"?