Rand Water Medical Scheme

Lack of adequate communications leads to pensioner’s medical aid lapsing; finds out while on the brink of renal failure and cannot be admitted to hospital

I am using HelloPeter to reach out to the administrators of Rand Water Medical Scheme after almost a month of not being able to move forward, via email and telephonic communications with the medical scheme’s administrators, with my urgent query on behalf of my mother, who is a pensioner. We discovered on Monday 26 January 2026, when my mother was being admitted to Milpark Hospital with a very sudden and severe acute kidney infection – after she had narrowly avoided going into kidney failure - that her medical aid had been terminated as at 30 June 2025; a fact of which my mother was completely unaware. As a result, we were unable to admit her to hospital and - even though the Casualty Doctors were very concerned about the situation - had to take her home and treat her as an outpatient, which was not ideal as she was severely ill (she had first gone to the GP that morning, in fact, manifesting a potentially life-threatening condition). To the best of her knowledge, and as far as I can corroborate, my mother had never received adequate communications to the effect that her medical aid had been terminated, and she was completely unaware of the situation. You can only imagine the additional shock, especially with an extremely ill and frail elderly person, to discover this situation on the brink of being admitted to hospital. My mother had previously been a Rand Water Medical Aid member for well over 20 years – probably closer to 30 years – and previously as a family we had always been very happy with them. I would like to first clarify that this unfortunate occurrence - the termination of my mother’s medical aid - apparently happened last year (2025), when the medical aid was being administered by ‘Company #1’. It's now being administered by ‘Company #2’. I believe that the termination occurred on the watch of Company #1. I do not know exactly when the change of administrator occurred, but some time during 2025. Our unhappiness with the current status quo is therefore as follows: 1. With Company #1 for a serious lack of communication leading up to the termination of the medical aid – which arguably could have prevented said termination if adequate and more comprehensive communications procedures had been followed - and 2. With Company #2 for not moving forward with a reinstatement, at our stated request, and despite the fact that my mother has transferred funds from her investments and is on standby to pay back payments to the new administrator. Via Company #2, we have received the following information from Company #1. I place the input from the previous administrator in quotation marks, and my response to each point in immediate reply. • “The member did not have any email address on record upon the time of suspension and termination.' My mother has been a member for many years - to the best of my knowledge, between 20 and 30 years, as outlined above. If this was indeed the case, surely it was negligent of Company #1 to allow this situation - the lack of fullest contact details - to continue? Why did they not send a registered letter in the physical realm to request an update of details on the system? • “We have also made notes that we tried to contact member on the number on record with no success.” My mother is quite deaf and frequently does not hear the phone ring. • “SMS was sent to advise member of the status of her membership.” Firstly, my mother has no record of having received such an SMS, and she checks her phone regularly. Secondly, I have personally accessed my mother’s phone (with her permission), in light of this statement, and searched for such an SMS, and been unable to find such. Could Company #1 please provide evidence of such an SMS having been sent - the number it was sent from, the date and the wording of the message. If indeed an SMS was sent, in light of the graveness of having a member's medical aid terminated, and without her knowledge, I would also suggest that if only one SMS was ever sent, this too is not acceptable business practice. Again I suggest that a registered letter could, and indeed should, have been sent. • “According to the Scheme Policy we are not able to reinstate the membership over 3 months of the termination date.” My mother and I have met with her financial advisor and released funds to cover back payments from July 2025 to February 2026, and thereafter would plan for her to once again pay monthly going forward. I understand that Rand Water is a closed scheme but have requested of the new administrators that, given the serious lack of evidence from Company #1 that they did everything in their power to contact my mother adequately, clemency in this matter be considered by the medical scheme with regards to the rules here. This is where I have found the communication from Company #2, the current administrators, to be seriously inadequate. I last received input a week ago via email, and only after I followed up. The input I received , after requesting information, was to the effect that the matter was still being investigated. The fact that my mother has no medical aid currently is a serious problem that we are trying to rectify, and we are willing to pay back payments, yet nobody seems to be taking ownership of the situation in a satisfactory manner. Records can be provided from both my mother’s GP, as well as Milpark Casualty doctors, to corroborate the seriousness of my mother’s recent medical illness. I look forward to an urgent and positive response from the new administrators of Rand Water Medical Scheme as soon as possible.