EDITOR – I send this mail in response to a call made to Talk Radio 702 recently regarding the Edenvale Clinic.
At the time the call was made, I was actually about two blocks away and went there immediately.
There must have been at least 150 people sitting and standing around in various stages of being processed.
I have now, for over two years, been reporting all issues at this public facility.
Staff and medicine shortages, facilities that have outgrown their useful purposes, lack of maintenance, lack of security and other matters.
The best response I had was for the management to accuse me of lying.
The metro sold off most of their usable land in Edenvale, some transactions under questionable circumstances, and now they have a problem that they cannot build new facilities unless they spend a lot of money to buy suitable land.
Two years ago an item was included in the budget without even me knowing about it, to extend and refurbish the existing clinic.
Nothing has happened in this regard.
Some of the noted issues include that there is only one admittance clerk where there should be three, a cleaner is helping out by doing the work of an admittance clerk, the security official is missing in action most of the time and there is one dentist for dozens of patients
When I visited the facility recently, there were at least 20 people waiting in a darkened dental surgery room because the lights did not work.
Patients were forced to walk around looking for their own medical files.
The filing system is in a mess, vacancies are not being filled and patients are being sent away before the scheduled closing time.
The clinic is clean, however I doubt whether for much longer as resources are being stretched every day.
Many of the patients come from areas where clinics do not function and it therefore does not only serve the Edenvale area.
There is only one clinic for a population of some 50 000 residents.
I have supporting e-mails by myself and responses from officials to back my efforts.
I was unemployed and was forced to try and access the state facility to obtain chronic medication.
We gave up after three months of trying, sometimes sitting at the clinic from 6am in the morning when lines were already long.
I pity the sick and infirm, and mothers with small babies who have to endure this dysfunctional service.
I also feel for the staff, they can only do what is possible.
The continuous meddling by politicians in budget allocations and staffing must be singled out as probably the main cause of most clinics which endure the same problems.
It is sad that matters will only be attended to when being aired in public via the press and electronic media.
BILL RUNDLE
WARD 19 EDENVALE
EDITOR’S COMMENT – The letter was sent to the media department for the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) on May 19 for comment by May 23 at 9am.
At the time of going to print, no comment was received.
