Pregnant women urinate in their hands due to shortage of cups at Rethabile Clinic in Limpopo

Patients at Rethabile Clinic, including pregnant women, have to wait for hours to be assisted as there is seemingly only one doctor on duty, Polokwane Review reports.

Not only do patients have to wait for hours but the clinic also does not have enough medical apparatus as the different departments have to share equipment.

The media received several complaints from patients who queued at the clinic since 06:00 in the morning and were only helped after 17:00 on Wednesday, 12 September.

“Young and old waited to be helped. Some got discouraged with the wait and left without seeing the doctor or getting their medication. Some of the nursing staff were friendly and tried to keep our spirits up and asked us to be patient. They explained the situation to us, but how is it that there is only one doctor available?” asked one patient who needed to renew his chronic medication.

Patients from the maternity ward said they did not only have to wait to be seen by the doctor, they also had to wait to get their vitals checked.

“There was no blood pressure machine at the maternity ward and we had to wait almost an hour for the machine to come back from the other department. We were told that there is not enough equipment and that the staff had to share what was available. There was also not urine cups for us to use.”

The woman said pregnant women had to urinate in their hands in order for the urine test to be done.

Another patient said after waiting for hours in the queue, at 14:00 a nurse came and asked the patients their arrival times at the clinic.

Those who arrived at the clinic after 08:00 were told that they came late and that they are holding up the queue and were given another date to come back. I didn’t understand the logic in that because the patients were waiting with us the entire day, why were they not told when they arrived the morning that they would not be helped? Them being there did not hold up the line, because they were not in front of those who came early so they were not inconveniencing anyone.

Some patients who were at the clinic who did not live in the Rethabile Clinic area, were told they should go to the clinic close to their community,” the patient explained.

The Department of Health has not responded to the issue.