“Hi Lisa,
I was notified by Lynn in your cancer care team at the beginning of October that I was not covered for HIFU but she did not know why. I asked to raise this as (a complaint). I was extremely upset and confused amongst many other emotions and was tearful on the call.
This is the start of my first flagging to speak to someone senior. She assured me it would be passed to her seniors to address. No one called me.
A report was requested from my consultant which was duly sent on October 12th confirmed to me by her secretary.
I find it extremely annoying and rather rude/sad to intimate that it's my sides fault for lack of any response.
We are now on December the 18th and finally after EIGHTY DAYS I was finally told why I couldn't have the HIFU procedure. Really? 80 DAYS. I can ship goods from China by train via Poland in 70 days.
This could of been told to me on day number 1 or possibly 2.
I chased and chased. I sent emails. I phoned. I broke down and cried. I had nothing from you. Nothing.
I asked for a senior manager or director of the cancer care team to call me and was assured this would happen. It didn't. I asked for this to happen due to the sheer incompetence of the lady who called me from the cancer team to tell me exactly what I knew at the start of October.
The disbelief from me when I asked her "why has it been refused?" to which she replied was "I don't know" I literally cried inside. The depths of my emotional well being hit rock bottom.
I emailed your CEO and on the back of that you sent me an email stating you would resolve this in a maximum of 5 days. Five days later and nothing. No email or phone call from you. Nothing.
Why have you even sent me a letter with a defence in it. No one listened at any stage to what I was asking which is WHY CAN I NOT HAVE THIS PROCEDURE.
The simple fact that you asked my consultant for a comprehensive report led me to believe that there was hope. You literally strung me along for 80 days.
You actually treated me disgracefully and to rub salt into the wound, you never had any intention to go forward with this procedure as your letter clearly states"it falls outside the scope of your cover"
Your letter is apologetic but then uses defences to try and push the blame back onto me. Again this is just disgusting behaviour. Be a man. Take it on the chin.
Your letter states "consider radical prostatectomy" , I've paraphrased here. You Did you not even read the letter sent by my consultant or the phone conversations I had. I do not want to this procedure. Full stop. I'm an alpha male aged 50. Even my wife doesn't want me to have this procedure. Do you even know what this entails and the possible consequences.for me both physically and mentally.
The trauma you have put me through can actually be put into words, by my counsellor whom I see every week.
You have destroyed part of me mentally and emotionally.
You failed me at every possible turn. I
I have now just thought of another email someone sent me recently stating "we have 10 days to come back to you as you are a trust member", and guess what, that didn't happen.
For today, I hate your company and everything it stands for. At no point did anyone, including yourself, think "God this guy's been treated really poorly let's get this resolved"
No one in the "cancer care team" thought to actually 'care" for me.
No humanity.
No compassion.
No professionalism.
Lynn wasy dedicated person but she simply vanished.
The only person to date, to have any backbone was Claire, when she called today.
I am utterly disgusted and emotionally battered by your negligence towards me.
Can you let me know, other then the trust, what recourse I have for financial.compensation for trauma you have put me through.
Thanks
Andy”
“After months of delays getting an operation, and finally many more months of being unable to perform it due to coronovirus, my employer "spun out" to form a separate legal entity. I went from an AXA policy, to an identical AXA policy. The only change is the legal entity paying it.
This apparently makes my condition "pre-existing" and not covered. I had multiple calls with them. Apparently there is simply no way I can have the treatment I've been waiting 6 months for, because my policy changes in a few weeks.
I'm shocked. I asked the lady on the phone - what if I was having chemo or something? Or I was actually staying in hospital when my policy changed? Oh, she said, casually, your treatment would end.
Want health insurance for piece of mind? Yeah. You won't get it. Seems the only thing you can trust to actually care for you is the NHS. Wish I'd kept that process going because I would actually have gotten treatment by now. I thought private was supposed to be quicker.
The process was awful to deal with too. I had to do all the administration, ringing secretaries, arranging dates (that were then cancelled by AXA as the doctor they told me to contact didn't do operations in a hospital AXA supported... A total mess the whole process).
After my official complaint, AXA decided they had done a bad job! Great! I got £50 back... Didn't even cover the £100 excess. So they admit to being rubbish, but I'm still left worse off, and suffering with a condition for many more months than I should have.
Awful, awful experience.
Funny thing is I'm still a "customer". My condition just suddenly changed to pre-existing mid treatment. You can bet I'm not going to bother using them though.”
“These people are fraudulent. We paid £488 a month premium for extended cover, and they told us that they wouldnt cover an urgent appt for an appointment for an endocrinologist.
We wouldnt ever go with these again. She was rude and hostile on the phone also
Avoid”
“Extremely poor service, I have an issue with my eyes, I submitted a claim to AXA PPP eights week ago and chase for an update 1 to 2 times a week. AXA PPP haven't even told me if the claim is accepted yet. They give no real reason for this delay. It seems to be a case of AXA PPP dragging their heels for as long as possible without any regard to customer service.
My GP has said that surgery is required and provided an open referral for this before I submitted the claim.
It is the worst customer service experienced I have ever received. I will be asking my HR department to seriously review whether they renew the policy with AXA PPP next year.
I don't often complaint but the service truly is awful! If you like to constantly case for an update and receive non-committal replies without ever approving the claim then AXA PPP are for you. They take your money and just play a game of let's drag this out whilst of course still taking the monthly premium! I could understand if my claim was outside of eligibility but it isn't excluded in the policy docs and looks like it is included!
If like me you expect a reasonable service, organisations are not perfect but you know I had hoped that private medial insurance was actually worth having then take your business elsewhere.”
