Appalling Service From Life Robinson Hospital In Randfontein

I am dissatisfied with the service that my Mom who is 80 years old & a beneficiary on my GEMS medical aid received at Robinson Life Hospital in Randfontein. We took my Mom to the hospital on the night of the 6th February because her knees were feeling weak at the back and she was battling to stand and walk, they took bloods and said they found nothing and they sent her back home then it got worse the next day she was in pain and couldn’t walk at all and I had to carry her around, so we took her back to the hospital where she was ushered in on a wheelchair and they did x-rays and still found nothing then suggested we get her crutches then they sent her back home again with just pain killers. Seeing that she was not getting any better we took her to Dr Cumming in Westonaria who just by stroking Mama’s swollen knees with his fingers could tell that she had water in the knees and referred her to Dr Tsama (Orthopaedic Surgeon) who drained the water then during our follow-up consultation referred us to a physician because he was not completely happy with my mom’s knees and suspected there could be underlying problems causing the swelling but we could not go the specialist because the medical aid funds are depleted because of Robinson that could have done more to find the problem and get it right the 1st time but failed. I expressed my dissatisfaction on their questionnaire but they did not bother getting back to me, then I called and was referred to Mpho Gumbi who is the unit manager, I explained my problem to him and he said he would look into it, I sent follow up emails but nothing, instead the one time he told me he was away working on a serious matter at another one of their hospitals, not sure if he meant that my problem was minor, he then kept promising to find my mom’s file and see who was on duty then get the head of Department to look into the matter, at some point he said he handed the matter over to a matron that deals with such cases but to date he has not done anything since I started communicating with him on the 19th of March. Yesterday the 29th of April I went to the hospital to speak to him face to face seeing that calls and emails were not giving me any results but Mpho Gumbi gave me such an attitude, he arrogantly asked me what it was exactly that I wanted him to do because my mom was not just turned away, they did bloods and x-rays and found nothing, but on the same breath he asked if a sonar was not done which to me showed that at the back of his mind he knows that more could have been done to help my mom. Then he asked if I had a problem with the doctor that was on duty, lancet or the x-rays or if I had a problem with having to pay the hospital for nothing as I had stated that I felt that my medical aid funds and excess that I had to pay was all going to waste, then he told me again it will take him 2 days to pull the file which he has been pulling since March and see who was on duty and he said that he deals with a lot of people not sure what he meant by that. When I told him that I wanted to get to the bottom of the matter so I can decide if we should never use Robinson again, he said to me I’m free to go to any hospital I want.

I feel they toyed with my Mom’s life and were inconsiderate of the pain she was in.