Held hostage by designated service provider
While I have generally been quite satisfied with the service I receive from Bonitas itself, the fund's insistence on using Pharmacy Direct as its only designated service provider is pushing me towards another medical aid. Given the 40% co-payment when using any other pharmacy, we have been stuck with Pharmacy Direct's appalling service. This last month, for example, I have been waiting since the 17th of October for the delivery of chronic medicine because Pharmacy Direct is constantly attempting to deliver medicine to an outdated address which had been changed in June. I have phoned almost daily during this time, constantly being told that the address has been updated, the package has been marked as urgent, etc. Just this morning I spoke to a case manager at Pharmacy Direct who took down and read back my correct delivery address. Two hours later I get a phone call that the delivery has arrived - at my old address. Over the past few months, I have spent several thousand rands out of pocket to try and get the chronic medicine my family needs. That is when we are lucky enough to be able to pay for it cash. Pharmacy Direct of course very diligently puts the prescriptions through its system every month which makes it look like we are trying to get the same medicine twice. This is just this past month. There have been numerous instances of medicine not being dispensed correctly, deliveries being weeks late, and so I could go on.  
While Pharmacy Direct is a terrible, terrible pharmacy, it is still Bonitas Medical Fund that is enabling terrible service by giving this pharmacy a monopoly. I have trouble understanding how Bonitas Medical Fund can have so little care for its members, but also how a medical aid can have such poor business sense. Pharmacy Direct dispenses chronic medication which, for the most part, cannot simply be discontinued or taken only sporadically. Therefore, if you use a pharmacy that causes people to not take chronic medicine as it has been prescribed, surely it follows that patients will be more likely to fall ill more regularly and thus be more costly? Is this not logical to everyone?

Complaining to Pharmacy Direct is absolutely futile - they clearly know that customers have little choice but to use them. My genuine question is what would happen if someone were to die? My partner who has severe asthma has been without an inhaler for almost two weeks. We cannot get this at another pharmacy as the system completely blocks any attempts. Luckily we were able to convince a Dischem to provide her with Epitec as she also has epilepsy. Is Bonitas really a medical aid which will allow its members to have seizures, asthma attacks, and other life threatening incidents because you refuse to let your members use reliable pharmacies? 

I find this shocking and again, ultimately, it is Bonitas who should be putting pressure on Pharmacy Direct to pull up their socks.