Netcare 911 Denies emergency care to elderly Discovery Health member

My 83 year old mom, who is on Discovery Health, suddenly became ill last night. She became extremely weak and had a temperature of 39. I (her daughter) tested covid+ a few days ago and allthough I did everything possible to prevent transmission to my familiy I could not help to feel extremely worried that my mom might have contracted the illness.....and she is unvaccinated. So after consulting an online Dr service, who advised me to call an ambulance, I called Netcare911 for assistance.

After about a 30 to 40 min wait the ambulance arrived. My husband opened the gate to let them in. Two cars arrived, an ambulance with 2 people and a "bakkie" of some sort with seemingly 1 person in it. My husband then called for me to put our dogs away as the paramedics in the ambulance informed that they will not assist unless we put the dogs away.

We have 4 dogs. An old Labrador, Dachshund, Foxterier and a "Africaner cross" rescued dog. My dogs are placit and not aggressive. I never the less managed to put the one dog in the washroom. We have a large property and no place to lock our dogs. I then went up to the car to try and explain this to the ambulance staff. The guy in the bakkie had allready gotten out of his vehicle and was now standing in the road in the driveway with the gate open less than 5 meters away from and well within reach of my dogs. In the ambulance was a male and a female paramedic. The male was the driver. Neither of them were wearing masks. While trying to explain the situation to the lady she kept speaking over me and then said: "we are black people and you are opening your dogs on us" and she went on to say that they will leave if the dogs are not locked away or tied up....what has the colour of ones skin got to do with my dogs or my mother that was in desperate need of emergency care? The lady's racial remarks together with the denial to medical care provoked the situation and eventually my husband told the ambulance to "f@&%ck off" which they then did. When i tried to speak to the 3rd guy in the road he told me their safety comes first....and yes I agree, but there was no danger or security threat that was so severe that you would leave an ill patient unattended....in fact how severe could it have been if the guy stands on the pavement while the gate is open and my dogs dont attack him????

I then called Netcare911 to report the situation and to ask for another vehicle. By now we had lost an hour. I spoke to the dispatch manager on duty, Tshego. I told her the whole story. I asked her re Netcare911's policy with regards to dogs. She could not give me a definitive answer. I also asked that if such a policy existed, why was I not informed when I asked for assistance. This would have given me time to try and make a plan or explain the situation. Again Tshego could not answer. She apologised for the poor experienced and offered to send back the same vehicle. I then told her that I am still not able to close off my dogs so I failled to understand why the same crew would now suddenly rendour a service. Tsego then dispatched another vehicle.

We then anxiously awaited the arrival of the new vehicle assuming she had explained the situation and that we would not have a repeat if the first incident.....but we were wrong.

When the next vehile arived I stayed inside again. My husband went up to greet them and opened the gate. Then I heared him call for me again. He then told me that we have a repeat of the same. I then walked up to the gate

When i got to there the gate was open. The ambulance was in the driveway and the 2 male paramedics was standing outside of the vehile. (See attached picture) Again the dogs were right there and they were outside their vehicle???? If the dogs were vicious they would have attacked them....but they didnt attack them, instead they went back to bed and with no dog insight they refused to see to my mom.

I then asked the driver what they would have done if my mother lived on her own with 2 dogs and she was unable to even go outside, let alone put the dogs away....would they just have left? He then told me that its not now the time for scenario building. When I asked for his name he refused to give it to me and said there is no need for him to give me his name since my husband allready took a picture if him. I tried again to explain the situation re the dogs as before but to no avail...they refused to assist. The driver decided to get into the back of the ambulance and ignored me. The other guy tried to call someone...and I called Tshepo again. Tsepho was just as confused by this behaviour and said that she is sorry, but she will try to source a different ambulance service provider and get back to me...which she however never did.

Eventually we were left with no other choice than to try and get my mom to hospital ourselves. My mom was to weak to walk up the stair and to the car herself. My husband was unable to manage on his own and needed my help resulting in me having to drive with them. Thus increasing the Covid exposure risk for both my mom and my husband.

On arrival at Westville Hospital my mom's Oxygen Saturation was 83% and she still had fever. My mom got admitted directly into High Care from Casualties.

As a client I am deeply dissapointed by Netcare and their staff. Not only did your paramedics not honour the ethical conduct of paramedics, nor did they live Netcare's Core values, or deliver on Netcare's guarantee to deliver emergency care, but they also found it appropriate to bring a racial connetation into a dire medical situation. Their conduct furthermore led to the denial of medical care to an elderly old lady who pays to have access to this service.

I want to state that about 5 years ago we called Netcare911 for a medical emergency. At the time we had the same dogs and the team that assisted then did not ask us to lock the dogs before they helped me.....

I also cant help to wonder what would netcare have done during the floods in Durban if someone with dogs needed their help.....would they also have turned the blind eye if there was no one to put the dogs away?

God helps the citizens of Siuth Africa