“I don’t see the reason why I should go to clinics or hospitals because there is no assistance there,” says James Mchekecheke

Since childhood, Mchekecheke has suffered headaches, but every clinic visit for the problem simply brought a new referral without relief, he says.

In 2002, he began developing skin problems and went to Shoshanguve 2 Block G and Kgabo clinics for treatment. Although he says staff was friendly, clinics did not have medicine to treat the condition.

“The staff attitude was perfect, but that value was reduced because they didn’t have medicine,”  adds Mchekecheke, who lives outside Pretoria in the Mabopane township. A 2010 tooth removal at Kgabo Clinic only added to his frustration with the public health system.

“It was a mess – I had terrible pain afterwards,” he adds. “They should have given me stronger painkillers.”

Now, despite a flare-up in his skin condition, he refuses to visit a local public clinic. Mchekecheke says he has had enough of public health facilities and now chooses to pay out-of-pocket for consultations at private pharmacies and doctors.

“I don’t see the reason why I should go to clinics or hospitals because there is no assistance there,” he tells OurHealth. “The medicine I get from the chemist works well.”

Gauteng Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) deputy chairperson Strike Tshabalala said that medicine stock-outs and poor health worker attitudes to patients and problems alike reduced patients’ confidence in the public sector.

“If you raise concerns about medicines, nurses become defensive instead of discussing the actual problems, and that worries some patients,” Tshabalala says.

The civil society Stop the Stock-Outs campaign last reported a medicine stock-out in Tshwane in April when the Shoshanguve Block JJ Clinic ran short of the anti-fungal treatment Fluconazole, which is often used to treat opportunistic infections in people living with HIV. The shortage, which was reported by a local TAC member, has since been resolved.

Medicine stock-outs can be reported to the campaign by SMSes, What’s Apps or calls to 084-855-7867.