Cato Manor clinic a ticking time-bomb

A visit to the Cato Manor Clinic by DA MP Haniff Hoosen and DA Councillor Halalisani Ndlovu on Friday morning revealed that the Cato Manor Clinic is in crisis with TB Patients infecting each other because of poor ventilation.

According to a media release by Hoosen, the clinic is in desperate need of adequate facilities to service the approx 800 patients a day, most of whom are cramped together in poorly ventilated rooms and as a result are spreading the disease among each other.

“Most patients who arrive at 2am for treatment, have to wait for up to 8 hours because of a severe lack of qualified medical personnel to cater for the high demand for treatment. On some days, one doctor and one nurse have to treat up to 600 HIV patients,” he said.

“As a consequence of these conditions, many HIV and TB infected patients are choosing not to return to the clinic for follow up treatment. This affects the Patient Default Rate which is climbing at an alarming rate. This is a serious cause for concern as the clinic is fast losing the fight to reduce the high HIV and TB infection rate in the Durban,” he said.

Hoosen said the clinic was in urgent need of renovation and was in very poor condition. “There are no cleaners on site and nurses are often required to sweep and mop the floors instead of attending to patients.”

The clinic is a joint operation between the eThekwini Municipality and the Provincial Government.

He said the DA would be calling for urgent measures to be implemented to address the poor working and treatment conditions at the clinic, at both a local government and provincial government level.

We will be raising this matter urgently with the Provincial Minister of Health, as well as filing a motion in eThekwini Municipality. It is clear that the ANC run governments in KZN have scant regard for the conditions under which staff have to work at this clinic, nor do they care about the conditions under which patients are being treated.