My son cut his hand at a friend's house on New Year's day. I have 4 sons and am not on medical aid so I pay cash at the emergency centres. I decided to drop into the nearest hospital rather than head to Olivedale emergency rooms where we normally visit. I was presented with and paid for a bill of R620 which was 50% higher than I had paid 4 months previously for almost the same wound on another boy at Olivedale Hospital, but I considered the fact that it was a different emergency centre. A week later I received another bill for R681, and was told I had not paid my bill. When I asked for a full account of the bill it had gone to R801. This month it rose to R874 and no-one could explain where my first payment had gone and why they kept finding more 'hospital items' to bill me! Today I drove to the hospital to sort it out and was told that the hospital reserves the right to add more items as they see fit, and that I had only paid for the PRIVATE emergency doctors bill (separate accounting) which is why they could not tell me where my money had gone. It turns out that my bill is almost exactly 400% more than Olivedale would charge, then add the billing frustrations. WHAT A RIP OFF!!