Netcare does not care

My name is Mrs Noxolo Nichollette Muthige, I am a Discovery medical aid *** In the afternoon of Monday 2 May I was rushed to Netcare Linmed hospital suffering from shortness of breath. My experience left my family, friends and myself appalled with the care given: 1. The nurse who attended to me at casualty was more concerned with making sure that I was aware that the hospital is busy instead of giving necessary assistance and helping to stabilize me. This was just a hint of what was to follow! 2. I was moved to resuscitation rooms where after several attempts, my condition was still not stable. Dr T****shi (sp.) referred my case to Dr Smit whom we were informed was a physician at the hospital who advised that i be admitted into ICU. We were informed we needed to wait for Discovery to authorize admission. After a while, we were informed authorization has been given and i was wheeled into ICU. 3. About an hour later two staff from casualty came to my bedside to inform me that they just realized that my medical plan does not qualify me to be admitted at Linmed. I have one of two options, one to pay a co payment of about R6400 or to be transferred to one of two hospitals in the area, Arwyp being one of them. I was shocked that we were not given this information before i was moved to ICU but I immediately opted to be transferred to Arwyp hospital. This proved to be the worst mistake made as I started receiving minimal attention from staff at the ward. I had to wait for hours for anyone to check up on me as they were busy attending to "Linmed patients" with the matron in charge of the ward shouting and cursing the whole night! 4. By 9pm my husband was still waiting at the hospital for my transfer as they apparently battled to get hold of Specialist on duty at Arwyp hospital. An instruction from the Dr Smith whom i had not yet met at the time said I should be allowed to sleep at Linmed for the night to be transferred in the morning, the metron put her foot down and instructed her staff to call Arwyp until they speak to the Dr as she wanted me to be transferred out of the hospital immediately. 5. My husband eventually left the hospital and requested to be informed as soon as i am being moved to Arwyp. Just before midnight I overheard the metron telling her staff to let me stay until morning. Nobody bothered to update me. And they continued giving minimal care. I suffered, was uncomfortable, and was exhausted as I could not fall asleep from pain and confusion! 6. I finally met Dr Smit as he was doing his morning rounds. He takes one look at me and instructs the staff to prepare to move me to a medical ward. I then ask him when am i moving to Arwyp, the answer I received was "it has been sorted last night, you will no longer be transferred, you will be discharged from the medical ward" 7. In the meanwhile, staff from accounts called my husband to tell him he needs to pay the co payment whether i move to Arwyp or not he simply doesn’t have a choice . He arrived at Linmed and was requested to pay minimum of R2150 immediately he which he did. 8. We were cheated/deceived into paying the amount, and I was admitted at linmed against my will, due to the co-payment issue. It would not have made sense to pay a co-payment and still be transferred. 9. I remained in pain with not much medical care given. I was moved to a medical ward and i was taken to do a lung function test at 1pm at Dr Smits' offices. His physiothe****** assisted me and i was due to discuss my test with him afterwards. I struggled through the test. The physiothe****** called the Dr to show him the first results he then responded to her in Afrikaans saying "try again but she will be discharged later today because there is a problem with her medical aid". The physiothe****** came back to me and asked me if I knew i was going to be discharged based on my medical aid plan and obviously this was the first that i heard of this. 10. I informed my husband who then demanded to speak to account staff requesting refund and demanding that i be transferred to Arwyp for proper medical care. He eventually managed to speak to Discovery personnel onsite who were surprised at the wrong information we were given regarding my rights to be admitted at Linmed hospital and co payments. Discovery assured us that the amount will be reversed into the account. 11. Later that night, Dr Smit came to my bed and basically discharged me based on the fact that "she is fit to be discharged", my husband explained to the DR Smit that she is still not well and she is battling to breath and she is weak, however he insisted that I will be discharged but since the pharmacy was already closed I could leave in the morning. I new that the Dr would discharge me before he even gave me the results, irrespective of how I feel. 12. We requested copies of all tests conducted. Even that process was a nightmare as no one seemed to want to help. I eventually had to be wheeled back to his rooms to get a sick note for my work which stated that i will be fit to go back to work on 16 May. Which Does not make sense if i was fit to go from ICU to medical Ward to being discharged in just 1.5 days. 13. We left the hospital and went straight to my GP , Dr Nel, to show him the results and to find out his opinion regarding the fact that i am discharged from hospital based on being fit enough. Dr Nel confirmed that based on the results, I should still be in hospital. He contacted his colleague at Glennwood hospital, shared the results with him, he agreed with him that I should still be in hospital. He gave us a referral letter to Glennwood, unfortunately when we arrived at Glennwood we were informed that my medical plan will require the co payment. There are so many unfair and wrong things that happened during my short stay at Netcare Linmed but the bottom line is Netcare made me feel very discriminated and gave me no care at all during my desperate time of need. Their main priority was whether i can afford to be at their hospital or not and definitely not to save my life!