Momentum puts disabled clients health at risk

I am very concerned that decisions being made by Momentum are putting my health at risk, and even worse is that they do not even have the decency to inform me that they have changed their minds.

I am a paraplegic who has no control over my bladder, thus needing catheters to empty my bladder. Last year I had approval for catheters until December, in the middle of the year Momentum decided to stop paying my supplier, they also neglected to inform me of this decision. When my supplier contacted me (only months later), I enquired a reason from Momentum and the response was weak, saying that the catheters I use are different from what the government hospitals use, because, you know, I have medical aid and didn’t go to a government hospital for my catheters.

While Momentum owes over R30 000 to my supplier, I have had the accounts department contacted, multiple people in the call centres have tried escalating this problem but to no avail... I am out of options and have to take this route to try get Momentum to assist me at last…

I now have a huge problem, my supplier refuses to give me more catheters because of the outstanding amount on my account (Which is a completely understandable business move), thus I am forced to use a re-usable catheter which poses massive health risks. The risk of infection goes way up when using a re-usable catheter compared to the single use, completely sealed and sterile catheters. Because of my injury I also lost a kidney, having an infection can become serious and result in me needing to be admitted to hospital for treatment if it progresses. This scares me because I have actually known a disabled individual who passed away because of kidney complications that started in the bladder…

I need Momentum to actually play ball and try assist me, this being shunted around from one person to the next with no follow up action is completely unprofessional and the longer it goes on the more time there is for me to develop complications…