Councillor clamps down on issues with White River Clinic
All her efforts up to now have gone unrewarded.
White River Post recently paid a visit to a local clinic after a complaint was lodged by DA Cllr Trudie Grove’Morgan.
For years she has been fighting with the ward and clinic committees. Telephone lines that are out of order, a deficiency of chronic medication and a shortage of staff, are among the issues she has been fighting to solve.
All her efforts up to now have gone unrewarded.
The clinic is too small to serve the community of White River, Hillsview, Msholozi and surrounding farms. The air cons are out of order and the waiting rooms are small and overcrowded.
Grove’Morgan was recently called to an urgent meeting by health officials and representatives from the MEC’s office.
“At the meeting I learned that the City of Mbombela Local Municipality is the reason the department cannot repair the air-conditioning unit and fit telephones, because an arrangement was never made.
“Mbombela gave the clinic over to the province and since then there was no service-level agreement, which means the department has never paid for using the Mbombela building and furniture. What is really sad is that I did a petition, a media statement, and even asked to get an appointment with the MEC, but to no avail.
“It also saddens me to see that admin issues can cause the department to neglect patients. I don’t find this as a valid excuse that the department is using; people’s health cleary is not being prioritised,” Grove’Morgan said.
Spokesman for the provincial Department of Health, Mr Dumisani Malamule, had more than a week to respond to the paper’s enquiries, but failed to do so.
