The City of Ekurhuleni has regarded a stabbing incident that took place in February at Bedfordview Clinic as ‘deeply regrettable’.

A community member had anonymously called Bedfordview Edenvale News to share that a Bedfordview Clinic staff member had been throttled, strangled and stabbed by an irate 61-year-old male patient.

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Other staff members, security and patients had restrained the man and handcuffed him. The police had taken him away while the staff member was taken to the hospital.

 While Bedfordview SAPS remained mum on the matter following several enquiries, city spokesperson Zweli Dlamini confirmed that operations at the clinic had been affected at the moment the incident occurred, but after the patient was taken by SAPS, services continued as normal.

He said affected staff members were examined by the resident medical officer and found to have sustained minor scratches to their hands, and the injury on duty forms were filled out. The nursing service manager went down to the clinic to offer moral support.

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The spokesperson stated, “Such acts of violence have no place in our healthcare facilities. The safety and well-being of our personnel remain a top priority, and the [health] department will explore every possible intervention to ensure that similar incidents do not occur again.”

Dlamini highlighted other challenges as the influx of patients from outside the catchment areas of the Bedfordview Clinic, leading to overcrowding. Also, understaffing in relation to the number of nurses, of which the facility only has four.

“The understaffing tends to prolong waiting time, hence those impatient patients may cause conflicts,” he said.

He also reminded all patients and users that the clinic has a formal complaints management procedure in place.

“Any concerns relating to service delivery must be lodged with the facility manager, who will make every effort to resolve them promptly. Should patients remain dissatisfied, they may escalate the matter to the senior manager for Primary Health Care,” said Dlamini.

Dlamini said recommendations for additional security personnel to patrol inside the clinic and installation of CCTV cameras and panic buttons are being considered as safety measures. He said that the department is not aware of any similar incident.