Moleleki residents protest against poor services provided by their clinic

The community of Moleleki section, Katlehong, took their anger to the streets and protested against what they call the poor services provided by Moleleki Clinic in the township.

February 24, 2020

Aaron Damane 2 minutes read

The community members listening as Thabo Moshoeshoe, one of the community leaders, read the list of grievances listed in the memorandum.

Community members were joined by patients and blocked the services of the clinic on February 13 to not only voice their concerns and grievances but also hand over their signed memorandum to the staff.

Thabo Moshoeshoe, one of the community leaders who led the protest, said they are sick and tired of the poor services provided by the clinic and that they had to address their concerns before something big happens.

He said mistreatment of patients by the staff, who don’t abide by their working hours, has been going on for a while and they want it to stop.

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“They spend more time on their cellphones while there is a queue of patients waiting. What made us angry and decided to protest today is that patients who were here on February 12 complained about how slow the queues were moving on the day. We felt we must stand up before people lose their lives while waiting for treatment,” said Moshoeshoe.

The memorandum was given to Takalani Mavhungu from the City of Ekurhuleni.

It had the following list of grievances:

Shortages of staff members in the clinic, shortages of medication, shortages of doctors, demands to have mobile clinic for dental care and pap smear, demand to have social workers in the clinic on a daily basis, psychologists and clinical committee to be recognised by the clinic, unfair treatment of staff members must come to an end, unfair treatment of patients by staff members to come to an end, staff members to respect their working hours, high blood pressure instruments to function on a daily basis, Department of Health to provide shelter to patients at the clinic and that the clinic must operate 24 hours a day.

Other complaints raised by the community members are that there is a lot of dust in the clinic as the clinic is still undergoing renovations. Therefore, they want to be allowed to get treatment from other clinics. There are no pregnancy testers at the clinic, TB patients must not be treated at the same place as children as children are in danger of being exposed to the disease and that the clinic must allow volunteers who have first-aid certificates to assist in the clinic, instead of making cleaners inject patients.

Moshoeshoe said, “What worries us as the community is that there is a high number of unemployment rate in South Africa, yet the clinic is deemed understaffed.”

As angry as they were, community members promised to work hand-in-hand with the staff members and officials from the Department of Health until the matter is attended to.

They gave the municipality seven days to respond to their grievances.

Mavhungu promised the community members that they will get response within seven days, as requested.

One of the staff members who wanted to comment anonymously told this publication that it is not nice to work at this clinic if you are a nurse.

“They work under a lot of pressure and the clinic is under staffed. There are only six professional nurses, including three sisters, two nurses who are still studying, the head of the clinic, as well as three nursing assistants. These people are attending to more than two people who come to the clinic for treatment everyday,” said anonymous.