Doctor Germaine Isabelle Drijepond

I went to Dr Germaine Isabelle Drijepondt on Friday, 6 April with my 9 month old son for a consultation. She was the only available doctor, since all the others were fully booked.

I suspected that my son has contracted the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RS-virus), which causes infection of the lungs and breathing passages, which is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children. Dr Drijepondt examined him by checking his ears, nose, throat and listening to his lungs. She did not take his temperature, even though I listed fever as a symptom.

I told Dr Drijepondt that I suspected that my son had the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RS-virus), and asked that she request a nasal swab. She prescribed antibiotics (which doesn't treat RSV or any other viral infection). I asked her how her treatment will differ from what she prescribed, if he tested positive for RSV, which she said it would be exactly the same. She assured me that the results will be back in the afternoon or early the next morning and that she or the doctor on call will phone me with the results.

On Saturday, 7 April I phoned to follow up, but the doctor's rooms were closed and I still haven't received the results. I then phoned the pathologist who said that I needed to go to a different branch to collect the results, as they couldn't give it to me telephonically.

The results came back positive for the RS Virus, which meant that Dr Drijepondt prescribed the wrong medication. Since it was Saturday and the rooms were closed, we were fortunate enough to get in touch with a different doctor which confirmed that the medication wouldn't treat the RS Virus and that we needed to wait for the Pharmacy which opened at 18:00 PM in order to get the correct medication. This meant that since Friday morning, we had to wait to Saturday evening to get the correct medication.

The fact that Dr Drijepondt didn't do a full check up, nor did she even think to request the nasal swab for the RS Virus and then prescribed the incorrect medication is extremely concerning. Not to mention the fact that till this day, she still haven't contacted me with the results or a follow up to ensure that we received the correct medication.

Dr Drijepondt did absolutely nothing to assist us. Her unprofessional behaviour and complete disregard for her patients is disheartening to say the least.