Paying “middle-men” to jump the queue is but one of several problems experienced by residents at the Eersterust community health centre.
“Some people arrive at the clinic as early as 04:00 to stand in the queue,” Ziyad Layte told Rekord.
“Then there are some people who pay about R50 to other people to get an early number in the queue.”
“This is ridiculous,” he said.
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Layte was speaking on behalf of several family members and friends who are residents in the area, many of them too afraid to speak to Rekord directly.
Tshwane district health services chief director Mothomone Pitsi said the matter had been brought under the clinic’s attention.
“Immediate investigations identified four men who apparently stand in queue as early as 04:30 to collect cash in exchange for a ticket number for patients who arrive late to jump the queue,” he said.
The men are all apparently local residents.
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Pitsi said measures have been put in place to avoid this in the future.
“We have informed the police,” he said.
“Also, no queue numbers will be issued to the four men.”
Warning posters have been put at the clinic, he said.
“Interested parties will be informed during the next clinic committee meeting and we will still continue with the use of our current appointment system,” he said.
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Another issue Layte raised was nurses at the clinic who did not give any preference to queuing elderly persons.
Pitsi said a centralised chronic medicine dispensing and distribution programme was in place at the clinic.
“This lets patients collect their prescribed chronic medicine at participating community-based pharmacies and general practitioners nearer to their home or workplaces,” he said.
The programme also lets patients collect medication from the clinic’s pharmacies, without having to queue at “general” queues.
He said the availability of such collections were discussed with patients when they are placed under the programme.
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“Elderly clients have a priority queue for consultation and are continuously advised about the system,” said Pitsi.
Layte said some patients also complained about how badly they were treated by staff.
“They treat some patients, even the elderly, like garbage,” he said.
Pitsi said only five complaints were brought under the clinic’s attention since January this year.
He said three of these were retrieved from the suggestion box, one was a verbal complaint and the last one was a text message.
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“Upon receiving the complaints, the patients and the transgressing staff members were called to a session, where complaints were discussed and resolved in the presence of the clinic committee,” he said.
“The redress of complaints was done accordingly. Thus far, all patients were satisfied with the outcome.”
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