Discovery Extended Medical Benefit

Discovery Saver plans allow 6 GP visits (extended medical benefit) once your savings are used up. However one apparently has to be "referred" to your GP ( in the small print without any explanation) by a Dischem or Clicks clinic. My wife recently underwent major surgery followed by a complication and I had a middle ear infection and we had to pay cash at the GP as we had not been referred. As 2 seventy year olds we would have had to make an appointment to see the clinic sister only to be referred to the GP with another appointment for something which obviously required a doctor's intervention. How stupid is that? Our GP tells us they have taken up the issue with Discovery but they refuse to budge.