GEMS REFUSES TO PROCESS A PENSIONER WITH OVER 40 YEARS AS A HEALTH PROFFESSIONAL'S APPLICATION FOR NO REASON.

<p>My mother a pensioner of 67 years' application has still npot been processed by GEMS to date, the membership application was initially sbmitted in 2016 but GEMS terminated the application due to insufficient supporting documentation, she re-app**** on the 04 April 2017 and was aslked to send the medical history and general health information report which was sent on 19 April 2017 and resent again on 02. May 2017 as the consultant that I spoke to advised me to resend due to the fact that it had for some wierd reason not reached GEMS' inbox. I called to follow up on the status after I had been advise that she would receive an "active membership" cofirmation sms after a few days which I am still waitng for to date, I called GEMS every 2 weeks to get the status of the application but was notified that the application had been terminated due to the fact that the Gemral healt and medical report had not been sent, this woulkd be the case or response for every call I made trying to follow up but some consultants would confirm receipt of the report and and would confirm that the application had been reopened and escalated to the membership department and team leads (this would be the response I would get for every call I made, the consultants would confirm the escalation to the Team lead and memebership department and the sanme typical answwer to say I would be called back in no time for the verdict), I have been promised to ba called back so many times but not a single call from GEMS has ever come through, it's now 4 months and have had no response from GEMS, I was advised to reapply again when I called to check again on 08 Augist 2017 and made me furious as all docuemts have been sent through but no one has ever reverted with the status....average call duration is 25 mins and my phone bill is ridiculous as a result and all effort for nothing...No one is calling back or saying anything and it's a 67 year old pensioner's health at stake here, she has had to pay cash on sevral occassions when visiting the doctors, hospitals and pharmacies and find this very unfair, this is a lady with over 40 years of service to the government ( Deprtment of Health) to be specific and her health is not being prioritized.. I had not kept record of the calls I made but started about 3 months ago as I could see this was taking nowhere slowly, the following is a list of calls made as well as reference numbers for every call: 29 May 2017 ref # MH ********** 7, 20 June 2017 ref MH ********** 1, 29 June 2017 Ref MH ********** 5, 06 July 2017 MH ********** 0, 18 july 2017 Ref MH ********** 7, July 2017 MH ********** 9, 01 August 2017 Ref ********** 4, 07 August 2017 MH ********** 9 ; 08.August 2017 ref: ********** 0... I have spent a fortune on airtinme for all these call and there's still no outcome to date, all consultants confim that docs have been receieved and that the issue would be escaled to membership department....I asked on 08 Aug 2017 for the memebership department's manager but the consultant refused to give me the tel number and email address of the Anna Marie who unfortunately does not take calls from the public, I fail to understand how this could be for a customer service departmental manager ref for this call MH ********** 0.. GEMS' staff is *********** together with the Team Lead and have no sense of urgency whatsoever..I mean this is medical aid institution of which calls and queries should be prioritised but it's definitely not the case, it's almost 56 moths down the linbe and still no feedback not communication and all I am advised to do is reaaply...scanning and printing costs aas well as telephone calls are not taken into consideration.</p> <p> </p> <p>GEMS must catch a wake up and start assisitng the people of South Africa.</p>