HEIDELBERG STATE HOSPITAL HORROR!!!!!

This is with great disappointment and disgrace that I would like to report the service we received at the Heidelberg State Hospital. The loudness and screaming as you come in is very disturbing.

My father do not have medical aid and they were visiting us from Cape Town in March and they had to stay with us during the lockdown. We realised that there was something wrong with him and decided after he had like a seizure of some kind that we needed to get tests done.

A lady at my office mentioned that she took her husband there a while back and they helped him with the necessary check-ups.

On Thursday, 11 June we woke at 5:00 in the morning, got my father ready, he was not even sure where we are going and why. As we got to the hospital they didn't want my husband to go in, so I went in with him, held his hand the whole time. At the door they checked our temperature and sanitize, but forgot to sign us in and we walked to casualties and sat there for a while, everyone just walking and screaming, no help! I asked the nurse not sure where we should go, how long we will be waiting. She directed me to another place and I asked where it was and she just showed me more or less talking unclear and as I tried to make it out and asked again she said arrogantly: "don't you know I would know where you should go?!" But before I went to have a look where I should maybe go, another nurse screamed and said we must come back to the front to sign in, so now my dad must stand up again and walk with me to do that first and then we had to go back again to casualties. As we sat down, someone else called us and said we must go with the security guard outside the building and at a next door go inside the building again. We sat on chairs in a row we were then about 4th.

I asked an older lady that has been there before just to watch my father while I went and had a look where it was that the first nurse said we must go. I went down a long passage and it led me outside, I couldn't find the place and asked someone passing by, there was a bench outside in the cold and doors closed and no one there. I then went back inside to sit with my dad and just keeping him calm and relaxed, he was tired because we had to go from one place to another and wait and have been there from 5:00.

Now the cue got shorter and a white lady (nurse) opened the door and when it was our turn she asked us 3 questions? Did we have an appointment, a reference letter from the doctor and which area did we come from? According to the lady at my office you can just go there very early and they will help you, but this was definitely not the case. The lady was very unfriendly and didn't even give me a chance to explain or say anything, when I answered we didn't have an appointment that is why we came early and we do not have a reference letter but could have brought is with if we knew, she just sent us away and also screamed at the other people and said "if all of you do not have an appointment you can all leave I will not help you."

What a horrible experience from start to finish, they treated us like a number or a piece of meat. No compassion or symphony to our situation and immediate need.

I immediately just acted normal and helped my father outside and into the car, angry and emotional, crying and informing my brother of this utmost horrible, disgusting experience and place!!!!!

I really feel this hospital and the personal is utmost unprofessional and action need to be taken. People in need have to be treated with respect and their medical needs provided for.

Regards

Mrs Strydom