Life St George`s Hospital discrepancies in hospital records and billing

I have been hospitalised on the 8th of August 2019 and we are still struggling to resolve the billing. The first issue that I have is the fact that the service that we received from reception was atrocious to say the least. Mrs Du Plessis was in agenizing pain yet we were left sitting for more than 40 minutes before we were assisted. And reception was in no way busy whilst we waited.

Now St Georges are claiming that Mrs Du Plessis was admitted to the hospital at 10h29 when at 10h29 we were sitting in reception complaining about the bad service and the fact that we have to wait so long when the patient is in pain. Our complaints were ignored and all that we were told is that they will attend to us when a file is opened.

Then at 10h55 we received the account and were told that we needed to make the full payment before Mrs Du Plessis could be admitted. Now if you take a look at the proof of payment slip that I have enclosed, you will note that our payment was only made at 10H59 where after I discussed with the lady who took the payment the structure of the quotation because as she mentioned to me the charges were estimates and in the end they will refund me for the unused stock ( what a laugh). I told her that I would request a detailed statement of all items used and the time that was taken in theatre and she informed me that it would be available the same day after Mrs Du Plessis is discharged. Now that was at least a further 10 mins so as you can see there is already a discrepancy because how is Mrs Du Plessis booked in before they have even got her to pay the account.

Then one now needs to take the time to get to the ward from reception and that would have taken us between 8 to 10 minutes as the patient was in total distress and could not walk very fast and we needed to find our directions in any case as the ward was not pointed out to us other than the name of the ward that we had to go to. We would only have arrived at the ward at 11h20 and not a minute before and strangely enough Mrs Du Plessis had to take a seat as there was not a bed available and so we were forced to wait until the bed was made available. Although we only needed to wait for about 5 mins, she did not get into her bed before 11h35.

That means we were 25 minutes early before your 12h00 day starts so I honestly do not see why we were charged a half a day extra for the 25mins that Mrs Du Plessis was in the bed especially after she was discharged at 09h00 on the 9th and that is 3 hours before the full day is over.

Now here again I have the proof that St Georges have not done their sums correctly and whoever has completed the times etc has fabricated same because you will note that I have included the records from my tracker here below stating that we left your parking lot at 09h21 after I had arrived to collect Mrs Du Plessis. She wanted to leave when I arrived at 08h45 but was told to wait so that she could be signed out. So you can work the time out for yourself that it would have taken me to walk with her to the car in order that we leave the premises at 09h21 and not 09h51 as stated on your records.

Trip Start : 9:21 AM 17,8 near Newton Avenue; Saint Georges Park; in Port Elizabeth; South Africa; 6001;

There are just too many discrepancies in your records whereas my times etc are factual and I honestly believe that I would also find more errors in respect of theatre time and charges.

Mrs Du Plessis is not going to held liable for the overcharge and should you deem it necessary to charge her I will take this to court where I know for a fact that St Georges will be found to be providing false information on the clients records and further to this if you do want to pursue this further then I suggest that you provide me with the total breakdown of all stock used in the hospital including theatre and the time that the theatre records show as we will then compare this to what the Specialist has provided.