Avoid this hospital's A&E !

Please allow me to express my experience with a Netcare facility, namely the Umhlanga/Gateway Hospital. I suffer from Parkinson’s Disease and on 12 August I fell at the uShaka Marine Park. I injured my hand badly and after Netcare first aid staff attended to me at the Park I was taken by my wife to the Netcare Umhlanga Hospital. We arrived at around 12h00 and I was the only patient in the casualty department reception. We were promptly and professionally signed in and told to sit and wait. Progressively, the waiting room filled up with sick people, including a person who complained of hot sweats, body aches, etc. He was given tablets and told to sit and wait. He was not quarantined or even given a mask - and sat coughing next to my wife! At around 15h00 we were moved to a cubicle. However, we were told that no doctor was available. The cubicle was bitterly cold (thanks to nurse Govender for her care and for granting me a blanket). When a doctor was eventually available, she was overwhelmed by the number of patients and attended to more serious patients. Understandably. Once she got around to treat my hand (around 17h00), she discovered that there were no stitch packs available (indeed, the autoclave was still running so that no stitch packs were available!!!). In the end, we departed hospital after 18h00 – having spent more than six hours at a private hospital to get a hand stitched up - plus an x-ray, the results of which I am still waiting for! there was no Radiologist available (On a Friday afternoon!!) It does not need a brain surgeon to determine how 24 hours later my wife developed a terrible flu ((Covid??) It appears that the very negative public opinion of this hospital is true! we overheard a gentleman complaining about the way NETCARE had treated his late mother and brother. Avoid this place like the plague!