Leora Hart

Review of Linksfield Sports and Rehabili...

I was scheduled to give birth at Bedford Gardens h...

I was scheduled to give birth at Bedford Gardens hospital on the 4th of May 2020.
I was instructed by my gynae (Dr. Indra Ramsamy) that should I go into early labour during the lockdown period that I must come to Linkwood hospital instead and that all co-payments are waived by Discovery during this time. Please note the only reason I came to Linkwood was because of this instruction. I wanted and was prepared and set to give birth at Bedford Gardens.

On Sunday 26/04/2020 I started having contractions.
I got in touch with Dr. Ramsamy and was instructed to go to Linkwood and get checked by the nurses.

When my husband and I arrived at Linkwood we went straight to the maternity ward. There were 3 nurses at the desk, none of which who greeted us or offered any sort of assistance until we asked.
Eventually, one lady sauntered off her chair and directed me to a room. They didn't give my husband any sort of recognition except telling him he had to go to the main hospital to book us in - I still didn't know whether I was actually in labour or not.

Soon the nurse did an internal inspection and told me I was in early labour and we were going to theatre. No other explanation - nothing about how far I was dilated or any other info.

At the main hospital, the admin kept insisting to my husband that he had to pay a co-payment of R8400 - it took our gynae speaking to reception directly and informing them of Discovery's notice that there was no co-payment to be paid. This was about 9pm on a Sunday night with him stressing out that he may miss the birth of his second child. So let me point out that staff on a ground-level do not know what is going on in their own place of work for one, and are incredibly uncaring for another.

My child was born and had to be sent to NICU. During his stay there again there was a nurse who acted as though my husband was dirt off her shoe. She was more tolerant of me but I think only because she had to be. It was a highly unpleasant feeling we could not speak to one of the 2 nurses who was taking care of our son.

Same with the information received - unless we hunted high and low and eventually ended up calling the specialist ourselves, we got no info.
At night the ward was noisy with nurses shouting or laughing loudly.

I was woken each day at 4am with a cleaner coming into the room even when I asked to be left to rest and that they come in at a better hour.

I am severely traumatised by this experience and as such will not be returning to Linkwood unless absolutely necessary.
This is a sad state of affairs as my first child was born there too and it was a much better experience. I'm not sure what's happened in the past 2.5 years but many of the staff come across as indifferent and cold - not something you want to be associated with a place of care.