Arwyp turns mom with cash away
Investigation into the incident showed the mom did not ask to speak to a manager
A mother whose child was vomiting blood was turned away at Arwyp’s casualty department although she had R17 000 cash with her.
The reason? She was R3 000 short. The child was admitted to Carstenhof Clinic in Midrand the same day without any problems.
Chantell Rudolph, marketing manager at Arwyp, said regrettably the matter was not escalated to management who would definitely have reassessed the case.
“Investigation into the incident showed the mom did not ask to speak to a manager or phone the contact details of management displayed in casualty.
“Added to that, she had the misfortune of dealing with a brand new receptionist who followed the procedure of only quoting set estimates, without flexibility. In-depth training for all reception staff will take place to ensure that decisions are not made in isolation,” Rudolph said.
The parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said her daughter was taken to Arwyp by ambulance on September 4, as she was vomiting blood after being given wrong medication at a clinic.
“To our disappointment they denied my daughter admission to the hospital because we were not on medical aid. I had R17 000 cash but yet we were told that it was not enough,” she said.
“The admin woman rang for her manager to enquire if she may admit the child. The rude response from the manager was R20 000 or no admission.
We pleaded with them to admit her and we would have arranged with the bank to provide us with an overdraft. We assured them we had a good record with the bank and it would be easy for us to be offered an overdraft.
“We further informed them our house and car were fully paid and that it could be insurance. The doctor who attended to my daughter also pleaded with them. He said the treatment she (child) needed would only take about three days of antibiotics through a drip.
“He assured them that no theatre and ICU would be necessary. But they never budged.”
The mother said Arwyp further told them a paediatrician would never attend to the child unless they paid R5 000, excluding R20 000 for the hospital.
“However, at Carstenhof the paediatrician never requested cash in advance. He emailed us the bill after our child had been discharged.
“We paid Arwyp R1 980 for their services at casualty and R298 for a blood test. We then drove more than 20km to Carstenhof. They never asked how much we had but they admitted the child and we only paid them when she was inside the paediatric ward receiving a treatment.
“My question to Arwyp is: what is important to them? To save life or money? They claim to care and save lives but they are ruthless and only care about your purse.
Rudolph explained: “A huge financial risk factor is always involved when admitting private patients. At the outset of admission it may not seem that a patient will require theatre or ICU treatment.
“Then a turn of events occurs and the patient is placed in a debt crisis. We try to avoid this scenario at all times.
“Another factor is that our specialists are independent from us, therefore their fee is separate to that of the hospital.
“Although the patient was regrettably not admitted, the patient was assessed by the casualty doctor, treated and found to be in a stable condition and was referred to Carstenhof Clinic for admission,” Rudolph said.
