Union Netcare Hospital - Providing the worst and most negligent care

Unbelievably bad service and customer care!!

I was booked for an Angiogram and a one day approval for hospital admission was given by my medical aid. I arrived at the hospital at 6:30am and since that time blood was taken, an ECG was performed, and around mid day my blood pressure was checked.

Besides this and being provided with breakfast and lunch, no one interacted with me. Not the cardiologist, not the nursing staff; no one. There was zero communication regarding my status or the time of the planned procedure, no notice of any scheduling issues or emergencies, no communication that I may have to stay the night; ABSOLUTELY ZERO communication.

By chance, the lady who goes around asking for patients' meal preferences asks me what I want for breakfast tomorrow, implying that I will be expected to stay the night at the hospital which was NEVER discussed, and obviously NOT something that was planned for - i.e. medical aid had not approved an overnight stay, the procedure was meant to have been a day only admission AND I had not made arrangements for myself, nor for my family's safety in my absence.

I approached the nursing staff stating that no one had communicated anything to me, I had no idea what was going on, whether my health was more at risk, and stated that if I do not get an update and better assistance that I intend to leave the hospital and seek to have the procedure performed elsewhere. After much back and forth they eventually called the cardiologist whose response, according to the nurse was: "If the patient wants to leave then they must leave." THIS IS THE PERSON THAT I AM MEANT TO TRUST WITH MY WELL-BEING!?

Needless to say, I have left the hospital, and was asked to complete a Refusal of Hospital Treatment form. WHAT TREATMENT? The cardiologist who I was told is "very busy" could be reached via phone in seconds to tell me to leave if I so chose, but had zero time to see me in the ward.

To be clear, no consultation was had with the cardiologist and no communication of any sort was received from the hospital staff for 10 HOURS! And this is supposed to be a private hospital??? Waiting all day without service is what I would expect at our state hospitals, which, to be fair, are understaffed.

This seems to me to be nothing more than a money making exercise where zero effort is made regarding providing any kind of service or communication and based on the cardiologist's comment there is zero consideration for the patient's well being. This seems like nothing more than opportunism - to extend patients' stay and milk us and our medical aid schemes while providing zero service.

So, now I'm walking around with a potential cardiac issue and I need to find a new cardiologist, and a new hospital for this treatment to be done. ALL of Netcare and their associates are off of that list for obvious reasons.

As a final note: before I left the hospital, another gentleman was having a heated discussion with staff as the call button where his wife was admitted was not functioning, and that she had been trying to call for assistance for an extended period of time without any luck.

I see a clear pattern here.