Netcare
Reviews and Complaints

Re: Mrs L M Cross. Patient for surgery. Greenacres Hospital. 17 - 22 April, 2023.

My husband has received an sms ref. no. [protected] informing him that he is liable for a private account amounting to over R138000 for my stay in Greenacres. He immediately phoned our medical aid and they replied saying that they have not received any claim from Netcare. He then phoned Netcare Accounts who appeared to admit that a claim has still not been submitted to the medical aid and that would now do so.

On leaving the hospital my wife was asked to complete a questionnaire regarding her experience there. She did this noting in particular:
1. Noise from drilling in the wall immediately behind her head.
2. No ablutions in the ward.
3. Dirty toilets with no hand wash.
4. Blood stained linen.

I wish to add my complaint about the inefficient administration in that no claim was submitted to the medical aid for 3 weeks.

Good day,

I've incurred a Hospital Debt of R33000 because of Dr Carrim failing to provide me with a Clinical motivational Letter which was requested by my Medical Aid. I've been calling his office desk at Waterfall since May 2022 also emails but to date he has failed to assist. Johanne from Waterfall Hospital collect department has also tried to assist in this regard but with fail.

I plead to you to assist in resolving the above matter.

Your assistant in this regard will be really appreciated.

King Regards

Kevin Aphane

I was admitted in mulbarton on the 28/03/23 diagnosed as hypovolemic shock in ICU. I am disappointed about the care I got. I sspent 2 days semi conscious, the drip on tissues, not being fed, but nursing ratio is 1:1. If my family didn't intervene I would have been killed by mulbarton staff. I was nearly dialysed because of their negligence.

I hate to day I don't want that hospital, I hate it with passion. Thsnks God I came out alive

Jeanette Rabalago

[protected]

So my fiancé was admitted to netcare by his boss because he got sick at work boss paid the admission fees etc we are not on medical aid so he paid cash and then my fiancé went for xrays which I had to pay for anyway his work received an email saying there is a refund so I sent the forms which they needed and went back and forth with emails got only 1 response and the email which I had to send it to in the first place never got back to me Jyotica.[protected]@netcare.

I even phoned then received another email I sent it there they sent me a form which shows the xray payment I made all I want to know is which refund is it?

Is it the money his boss paid or is it the money I paid?

I even have a Refund number like nobody can even assist me with that I don't know how to go about this anymore.

Need help.

In December 2021, I got an eye operation and paid for everything cash. Now they are demanding a further payment of R15 000, which was not part of the original quotation. I initially got a quotation from my Eye specialist for R20 000 and on the day of the operation when I was about to pay was asked to pay R34 000 total. I paid the R34000 cash. A few months I received a demand of payment for an extra 15000 from the R34 000 quotation. I have explained everything to them this was a cash transaction and paid as per their quotation but they continue demand payment even threatening legal action.
I need assistance resolving this.

I visited your causality department at Netcare Waterfall on the 27th of February 2023. Dr Willemse was my attending doctor after assessment. I had taken my Xray's which was done by my previous doctor as I was experiencing the same symptoms. I was diagnosed with Bronchopneumonia and explained to the doctor that I was still experiencing the same issue with a continuous bout of coughing which I had that morning hence rushed to the hospital. After accessing me and picked up that my blood pressure was high, I was treated for that and nebulized. I was given a script to purchase medication. To my utter shock i was prescribed Panado, probiotic, ACC200, 2 nose sprays. I went back to the hospital to speak to the doctor to understand WHY she had given me pandado for Bronchopneumonia and the reason for a probiotic. She was surprised that she had prescribed a probiotic and mentioned that I told her that I was on anti-biotics for the same issue by my previous doctor. Which I had, but my previous attending doctor had given me a probiotic. She then went on to say, oh it is nothing bad to just take a probiotic. NOW this Doctor is just prescribing medication unethically.

I want to formally log this complaint with Netcare and will be taking the Doctor up with the medical board for falsely administering medication.

On the 14/02/2023 I made a refund request with Muzi Ngwenya at Waterfall city Hospital Midrand for Bed booking . I then called again 21/02/2023 and Muzi advised I will receive my refund on the 27/02/2023. I sent a follow up email as I did not receive my refund and he confirmed in writing that it will be done on the 06/02/2023 and Wilona Maswanganye is assisting. To-date I have not received my refund and I am being ignored again.

I came in at 8am on the 6 Feb 2023 to be admitted as advised by my doctor. It is now 14:25 and Im still waiting in the lobby due to no beds available. How is this good customer service.

Sitting here in pain suffering in silence and all they say is patients are still in the bed I need to wait until they are moved.

Not happy at all.

Michelle Slabbert

[protected]

My mother is a 66 year old woman with stage 4 cancer, she was a registered nurse working at Milpark for years. She dedicated years of her life servicing the hospital yet she has received the most appalling experience.

My mother has been in the ICU for 3 weeks now and the treatment she has been getting has been absolutely disgusting. My sister had to go in and clean my mom because the nurse was disgusted, they would rather see someone sitting in their own mess than do any work. Earlier in the week another sister went to visit and her clothes were dirty, she wasn't bathed. They had to be asked to please help and bath her, her wounds were literally rotting. Did I mention that this is the ICU. Today the nurse made sure that she used up my whole visiting hour to clean her. We are absolutely disgusted with this whole experience, we have to run after doctors to get any sort of updates regarding her progress.

The inhumane treatment has had an effect to all of us, none of your staff has and empathy whatsoever. As a nurse, YOU CANNOT be disgusted to do your jobs, your nurses have no respect for human life. If nurses do not want to work they must stay please stay home. You need to address this ASAP.

We will now start going in and recording the kind of treatment and share with the nation, I will make it my mission to expose each and every mistreatment my mother is experiencing. Her life and wellbeing may not matter to your company but it does to us!

My baby boy 8 days old was admitted in paeds diagnosed wth jaundice, staff member not helpful at all, even if you go to bathroom and the baby is crying no body will pick him. Only night staff nurse Leah or lean she waz the only one who was helping, admin clerk very disrespectful come to me as a mother of sick baby telling me abt the linen that was been send back due to putting it in wrong basket and I ask one of the nurses staff to assist me wth that.

I arrived at Emergency at 15:30. The nurse that checked me before I opened my file was efficient and friendly. Even to get my file opened, that was quick and efficient. Then the wait began. I was called inside the room to see the dr just after 18:00. At 19:30 I still hadn’t seen the dr. But patients that came before me had been seen too. When I asked the nurse she said you are next. I replied you guys said that an hour and half ago. When I walked away they just laughed. Pathetic service. I then told them I am leaving and they better not charge me.

I was admitted to your netcare hospital on the 30th Nov 12:00 for nose sinus and tonsillectomy due to severe sleep apnea. The procedure was however done on the 1st Dec after undergoing test to make sure I was stable enough for surgery.

After surgery which started at about 7pm I was admitted to ICU. On the morning of the 3rd Dec at about 4am a gentleman from Ampath lab came to draw blood to rest oxygen I think as the physician had ordered it on the 30th so I was familiar with the procedure. It was very painful the 1st time and required 2 attempt before an artery was found. It took this gentleman 3 attempt and still no artery found. Then a nurse came and said she could find it, she took my left hand while the gentleman is on my right side. She put the needle in my arm now artery so she started moving the needful inside my skin trying to locate it I started to screen out in pain she pinned me down from the left and the gentleman pinned me down on the righ while I'm screaming for her to stop. She did not and finally drew blood. Then she looked at it and said to him the colour don't look right I hope it is artery blood. Leaving me shaking totally in shock at what had just happened to me.

I then called my family, I tried to leave to ward to look for a manager or someone to help me out of this fearful situation. My nurse came from her break calmed me down called my family explained what happend, called the matron the I had to relive that again on the same bed. My family arrived from Mitchell Plain I was discharged at 6:20am.

The blood test was not a matter of life or death at that moment it could have waited for the lab to send someone else later that morning that nurse should not have let her ego take over and assault a patient.

On the 8th at 12:55 I was admitted again due to tonsillectomy bleed, after it was fixed I went to high care. On the morning of the 9th during to shift change handover the sister tell the other sister this is the patient who is scared to be poked and was in ICU last week. I just sat there in total shock at the level of professionalism shown. I then ask my nurse to call the matron and I laid a complaint.

Yesterday I received a call from extension 0129 I was at the hospital in the Dr room for my followup appointment so the call diverted to my husband who had a nice long conversation regarding my insident at your hospital and the review I left, how extra unprofessional can your senior nursing staff be.

I live in Mitchell's Plain and here we know the service will not be good, so we go out of our area drive far like to Tokai, Stellenbosch, Somerset West and now to CPT because the best ENT was at your hospital but the experience and how it is currently being handled is pathetic and very disappointing.

Oh my goodness. This hospital is gone almost like a government facilty. The only friendly person at casualty was the registered male nurse who kept on checking on me . I was discharged at around 11 pm on the 29thg October 2022. The casualty doctor was useless, where are all the good doctors done to. I was admitted the next morning by my physician Dr Variawa, who refered my to a Orthpopaedic surgeon, who found multiple tissue and tendon injuries after a ultrasound. Where do you find these cheap casualty doctors. I am not racist but there were only one white person, the rest were blacks. You serve absolutely crap food. I wont even feed it to the dog. Your toilet was so dirty. Overall from 0-to 10 I will give you 3. You should be so luck for that. I called in today for the hospital to fill in a claim form, I was pushed from pillar to post

I admitted at Alberton hospital at cardiac icu ,I only saw the doctor when I was admitted and on Wednesday ,Thursday and Friday I was told my doctor went on leave i didn’t see any doctor for 2 Days yet I’m still sleeping on the ICU bed,I don’t know what kind of the doctor will leave a patient at ICU Without checking upon that patient,the service at Alberton Netcare hospital sucks they don’t care about the patients at all, I regret going to Alberton hospital , he will be claiming on medical aid the service he didn’t render of which is fraud

On Saturday 8/10/2022 at around 9:30pm, my 17-month-old baby had an allergic reaction to something she ate at Melrose Arch. She started throwing up, swelling with hives and felt dizzy that she fell asleep. We searched the nearest hospital where Rosebank Hospital came up and it took us 10 minutes' drive to get there only to find that there were no emergency facilities available, and the hospital was "closed".

The security then told us the nearest emergency hospital was Milpark Hosptial. This took us another 15 minutes' drive to get there.

When we arrived at Milpark we were greeted by reception and told to take the baby through to the back. I then saw no one and called "hello" about 5 times before someone came out to see me. I told the sister that my baby is reacting to something she ate when the sister then responded by saying that there was only one Dr available, and he was busy with a resus patient so cannot tell me how long I will wait. I then asked her if there was anyone else that could attend to my baby if the only Dr present wasn't available and she said no. She then told me to go and open a file.

I then asked the nurse to please check my baby's vitals so I can decide if I should take her to another hospital due to the lack of staff at Milpark, to which she responded - "its your choice what you do, the Dr is busy"

I then asked her again to please check my baby's vitals so that I can see if I can take her somewhere else. The machine's battery that was at the bed was low and she had to fetch another machine to check the vitals. My husband and myself then decided to leave and go to Life Flora Hospital where we know she will get proper emergency care based on previous experiences. As we walked out, I called the sister wanting to let her know we had decided to leave, she continued to walk in the opposite direction, mumbling to herself and gave us ignorant sweep/flick hand gesture.

We then took another 20 minutes to get to Life Flora Hospital where we were urgently ushered by a member of triage from the car to the bed where a sister listened to our situation and a Dr was at our bed within 5 minutes. Only then was a file requested to be opened once our situation was evaluated and the level of severity was understood. This was outstanding service in comparison to the 2 Netcare Hospitals we had just come from.

Why is there only 1 Dr available in a Level 1 Trauma Unit Emergency Hospital? Why are the sisters/back up staff not capable of understanding the needs of an allergic reaction in a baby and assist in the absence of a Dr. Why are we told to open a file and wait for the DR (who knows how long) when I have a baby having an anaphylactic reaction which requires prompt care.

I pay a lot of money to be on a medical aid that enables me to benefit from Private Hospital Care and the experience I got from the 2 Netcare Hospitals felt nothing different to what I would have experienced in a government facility.

Was admitted into sec4 at the Netcare Alberton Hospital on the 26th of September 2022 at 15:18. Not only was I not offered supper but my medication/drip I was supposed to be put on was not given to me until the ffg morning after I had made my own enquiries. Had I not asked I would have been blatantly neglected. When I was discharged, no sister came to actually remove my drip I had to ask someone to come assist. That particular sister further said she would ask someone assigned to me to come and discharge me as she was not obligated to do so. I had to wait another 2 hours and I also had to ask again to get help. The sisters are negligent and unfriendly. If you don't speak up you'll suffer in silence. Utterly disappointed!

Only one baby Changing facility in the entire hospital. And the light didn't even work.

Patient vomit left on the floor of the ER for over 1/2. People had to just walk over it.

Only on ER doctor on call for a Friday night. And didn't even do the job properly was discharged to only turn back once in the parking lot then had to wait another two hours to be helped again

I rushed my 2 year old to the new Netcare Alberton hospital on the morning of 6 September as she was vomiting and dehydrated.

We were taken through to the ER pediatric bays where the doctor examined her and decided to draw blood to establish her level of dehydration. It was also decided that she needs to be put on a drip in the meantime.

The sister on call could not place the drip, the staff from Ampath had to assist when drawing bloods. As the Ampath staff arrived I was asked to wait outside. I refused... how am I expected to leave my 2 year under your care only?

They staff struggled to find a vine and eventually put the drip in skew which resulted in the nurse continually having to adjust it in order for the drip to actually work. Please tell me how you have pediatric ER bays but no pediatric trained ER staff?

We are finally admitted and given a bed in the pediatric ward after 8:30, from being there since 04:00 in the morning.

The nurses from the ward fail to check this haywire drip resulting in it going into the arm tissue. My baby's arm is so swollen and sore to the touch. The drip is removed after I complain and the plaster rips off the skin of her arm.

Then the nurse brings reparil gel to assist the swellingto go down and applies it over the torn and open skin. My child screams in agony and the nurse just continues as if she is just being difficult.

Later that evening a high ranking lady rom Ampath comes to inform me that they will only replace the drip the next morning when they have to draw blood again. I agree, stating that they need to get the drip set the first time around or else get the pediatrician to assist.

The following morning whilst we are still asleep, she walk into our hospital room and want s to take my baby from the cot. I wake up and then only does she ask me if she can take my child? How is she allowed to just take my child without informing me? What if I woke up after she took my child and found an empty cot?

She proceeds to tell me that I do not need to accompany my minor child to have blood drawn. I go with anyway.

Once again the struggle to find a vein and want to try a second time in my child's foot.

I refuse and take my child back to her room.

Why do you not have properly trained pediatric staff? Surely if you are working in a pediatric ward you need to be trained for it?

This service is absolutely appalling to say the least.

The doctors are so well trained and helpful but the rest of the staff are sub standard yet are highly paid.