Naledi residents to get a new R25-million clinic

18 May 2017

 

The City of Johannesburg is to spend more than R25-million on the construction of a new state-of-the-art clinic in Naledi in Soweto, Region D, in its continued drive to enhance the quality of primary healthcare in communities.

 

This emerged during a tour of four clinics in Soweto by a City delegation led by Member of the Mayoral Committee for Health and Social Development Cllr Mpho Phalatse on Wednesday May 17.

The fact-finding mission was aimed at assessing the needs of primary healthcare facilities and interacting with patients in the region.

The other three clinics visited by the delegates, including senior health officials and operations managers of clinics, were Protea Glen, Green Village and Senaoane.

At present the Naledi Extension 2 Clinic operates from several overcrowded shipping containers.

MMC Phalatse said preliminary work on the new clinic would start in July this year. Construction work is scheduled to start in the 2018-2019 financial year.

Over the past nine months the clinic served a total of 22 467 patients. At the same time the Protea Glen Clinic Extension 11 – which served 88 538 patients over the past nine, the highest number of patients attended to in clinics in the region – is undergoing major refurbishments to help it cope with the increasing number of patients.

On Wednesday workmen were busy with part of the R1-million upgrade, which includes the construction of three new consultation rooms.

Staff at Green Village Clinic attended to 52 280 patients over the past nine months. Those at Senaoane Clinic attended to 35 690 patients.

The main complaints the MMC and her delegation received during the tour included staff shortages, which patients said resulted in long waiting periods and overcrowding. The abuse of drugs, especially nyaope, was cited as a growing problem that the clinics have to deal with.

Lerato Mokone, a university student, told MMC Phalatse that nurses needed to change their attitudes and treat women with respect and dignity, especially those seeking family planning and pap smears.

Cllr Phalatse said the fact-finding mission was aimed at addressing such issues and urged the nurses to take patients’ complaints more seriously. She said although overcrowding could not be resolved overnight, the priority was to secure land to build health facilities for the growing population across Joburg.

“Our spatial planning should include all amenities. We need to secure land before planning new settlements,” she said.

She said providing patients with information would help empower them. “If people don’t know what we offer it’s as good as not having the information,” Cllr Phalatse said.

She said despite the staff shortages and overcrowding, she was generally happy with the services offered by the clinics.