HEALth-WorX Medical & Dental Centre – Raslouw

Dear Google Users and Health-Worx,

I trust this review finds you in good health, as attending this practice certainly won’t find you in any better health after your visit.

Unfortunately, I get re-occurring ingrown toenails that require surgical extractions. Due to my current employment, I cannot afford to take time off work and therefore have to book my extractions on Fridays or Saturdays.

After much desperation I called Healthworx at Raslouw at 07:23am on the 11th of February 2023. A friendly receptionist answered and I asked when they had moved to Raslouw from Centurion Mall. She claimed she was new, and only came on board after the move (first red flag).

I asked the receptionist if they had room to perform a surgical procedure to remove an ingrown toenail today. She then scurried away to speak to her “colleagues to double-check if they could do such a procedure”. After returning to my call she told me to come in at 08:45am as they could perform the procedure.

I arrived at the practice at 08:53am due to poor weather on the roads, but called to inform them I was running late for my appointment – another receptionist told me that was fine, and that she would inform the relevant parties.

Upon arrival, I updated my existing file and was summarily allocated a “LOCUM”. Dr Pierre was wearing a mask, so unfortunately I could not hear his full name.

I explained to the doctor that my ingrown toenail was a re-occurring issue and that it requires surgical extraction, which I am desperate for as much job requires me to be on my feet at this time of year, especially in the month of February.

After examining my toe I was told I had an infection, but he checked the time and requested a nurse or sister to come in and take a look at my toe.

The sister/nurse began to explain that they could not operate on a toe with a current infection (this hasn’t been my past experience at my standard GP who always soaks my foot in an anti-biotic wash before surgery). However, it then came out that due to time and back-to-back appointments, they would not have the required 30 minutes to perform the extraction.

The sister/nurse and doctor recommended anti-biotics, foot soaks, and painkillers to take care of the problem, and if that didn’t work to come in on Monday – perform the procedure and book me off work when they had time to perform the minor surgery.

When I told them that I informed reception of the extraction, and that they confirmed it could take place on a Saturday they claimed reception never informed them of such – and they apologise for the misunderstanding.

There was no misunderstanding, the lack of internal communication protocols at Health-Worx effectively extorted me for the cost of a consult, petrol and general anti-biotics when an anti-biotic ointment to the site could have sufficed post-surgery.

More importance was placed on churning out these 15-minute consults to maximise their income at the expense of patient care and good outcomes for their patients.

Not only do I not recommend them, but I encourage an external investigation by the Health Professions Council for not providing access to appropriate healthcare service and acting in the interest of profit gain and not of the patient.

Please sort this out, private health care is expensive enough without needing to worry about getting robbed blind in South Africa.

Kind regards,

Unhappy Patient/Client

Waited 90 min after scheduled appointment before leaving without seeing the Dr

I’ve geen going there for two years. Recently moved to Dr. Jerry and he is absolutely fantastic!

What an awful experience I had. I went to one of their GPs and clearly stated that they need to use chronic codes to process my account. The Dr. confirmed on the day that they did exactly that and that the account has already been paid by Discovery. To my surprise, I received an account statement the following day. I immediately informed them that the wrong codes were used but they refused to amend it on their end. They ignored my communication and handed the account over. Wow, where is your humanity? Just more proof that we are treated as a number, with no compassion at all.

Update 11/11/2022: I ended up settling this account and they had the audacity to send me another account statement today. Outrageous I tell you!!