THE Democratic Alliance in eThekwini has written to  deputy city manager, Musa Gumede, seeking urgent answers on the dire state of the municipality’s clinics. The party’s Shontel de Boer said was shocked at the lack of  crucial medical supplies at a number of clinics, including La Lucia Clinic.

“The La Lucia Clinic had a short supply of surgical gloves, making it near impossible to attend to emergency cases. Also lacking were insulin needles, syringes and lancets. After consulting with my colleagues in other areas around Durban, I learned this is not an isolated problem and that numerous other public clinics were facing similar, if not worse shortages,” she said.

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“The Glen Earl Clinic in Newlands East, the Firwood Road Clinic in Greenwood Park, the Triumph Road Clinic in Durban North, a Mobile Clinic in Durban’s Ward 110 and one in Phoenix, are just a few other municipal clinics that are also suffering a serious lack of supplies. Patients who rely on the services of these clinics are dangerously inconvenienced by this shortage of supplies with especially annual pap smears and monthly diabetic and chronic patient visitations being affected,” she said.

De Boer added by allowing this situation to deteriorate, the eThekwini Municipality was placing not only the patients’ lives in danger but also the health of the staff by potentially exposing them to communicable diseases.

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