Lie to me

<p>This is a tale of outrageous lack of accountability, delay tactics and a lack of fundamental client care s****s. Two months ago, I drove to JHB to acquire a practice number at this institution and it was done in under two hours. A month later, my good friend tried to do the same but was told it would be emailed to him latest the next day. That was on the 7th of March. Ever since then he's been caught in their vortex of incompetence, indifference and deceit, making call after call, being on hold for hours to no avail. I decided to call on his behalf (since I still had airtime at that point, unlike the unfortunate Mr Tjale who is trying to establish his independent practice). On Thursday the 16th of March I called and spoke to a manager, Mr Keith Pillay who found the application on the in-tray of administrator Gcina Hlophe and assured me that the matter would be sorted by the following Monday. They had apparently had a backlog. He very kindly said he'd call us on Monday and personally oversee the matter. He even took our numbers, which in retrospect was the distractor in this long con. Monday came and went. No call. No email. Not even a courteous smoke signal. On Wednesday I called again, and after the excessive wait (airtime ticking away obliviously), he told me he'd come back to me and said hopefully the matter would be sorted the next day when he eventually did. The system had had an unexpected crash, but offered no apology for not getting back to us. On Thursday and Friday, I called as I was invited to do by Mr Pillay, but not only was I told he was not taking calls/busy on both occasions, but he would be getting back to me later that afternoon. No-one will less surprised than me to learn that this Mr Pillay, so reasonable-sounding on the phone, didn't return the call. We are in private practice, without this practice number, one cannot get compensated by medical schemes for the work that's been done. Mr Tjale remains disadvantaged and discouraged without a reasonable explanation for why he's been made to wait so long when he submitted his application in person nearly a month ago, nor has a satisfactory reason been attempted by the administrators. My issue with them also includes the craven lying; promises of calls and results, followed by silence. It's only been a week and a half since I first spoke to Mr Pillay and his staff and I've already had more of all of them than anyone could bear. They behave this way because they know healthcare practitioners have no alternative but to countenance their shambolic performance, so I'd like to warm anyone dealing with them to buckle up and pour several drinks.</p>