Netcare N1 City Hospital

I've heard so many negative comments from friends and family about Netcare N1 city hospital in the past but haven't experienced it for myself until last night. I had severe abdominal pain and was rushed to the hospital last night around 22:00 because it was the closest hospital. I was in so much pain to the point of crying and barely being able to walk but when I arrived to the trauma entrance, even though there was only one person before me the nurse on duty doing the covid testing took her own sweet time even though we said it was an emergency.

I'm fully vaccinated and haven't had any contact with a person infected with covid. I haven't even been infected with covid before. But they insisted on testing me before I could enter the hospital, which I understand but as it was an emergency I expected for there to be a sense of urgency to get this formality out of the way so I could get treated.

After the nurse in the covid screening tent finally swabed me, she then instructed me to wait for another nurse to do further screening (which consisted of testing my BP and blood sugar levels) in a trailer outside the entrance, which I did.

After some time went by, I wanted to ask her about the billing for the covid testing and if I should provide my medical aid. She then proceeded to flat out ignore me and not even have the decency to respond, she walked past me several times even when I had said "excuse me" multiple times, and even ignored my mother after she approached her.

Even though I was the only patient there at the time in front of the trauma entrance, crouched over in pain, the staff working last night were so rude and inconsiderate. I feel like I could have been dying right there in front of the hospital and they wouldn't have bat an eyelid so long as they could get their paperwork done. After spending an hour not even being able to go inside the hospital I decided to just leave and suffer at home instead.

When I told the other nurse on duty that I would be leaving she made it seem like I had been wasting their time. I feel that the actions of the staff working last night was honestly so unprofessional and disrespectful. Working in the Healthcare profession myself, I feel that patient care is the first priority. I received little/no consideration last night and there weren't even many patients waiting for that to be an excuse. One other patient came after me and we were only 6 people in total in front but they wanted to chase my two family members away from the waiting area. Who even knows how long I would have waited if I had stayed outside that hospital to receive treatment. After this incident I will never visit Netcare N1 city hospital again, even if it's an emergency.

Based on last night's experience, there is no such thing as human decency or even respect for the patient, their focus was more on completing their own paperwork which makes me think that this is just a money-making business that doesn't provide adequate care to patients. I understand that things are more difficult now during this Covid pandemic and these precautions are necessary but I feel that my condition was made worse visiting this hospital and then being treated so badly to the point that I had to go back home and receive medical care elsewhere the next day.

I hope this complaint proves useful so that the next person doesn't have to go through what I did and something can be done about the staff's treatment of patients and their procedures.