Tshwane community ponders 24-hour clinic
Shoshanguve’s Boikhutsong Clinic provides services like HIV counselling and testing, HIV and TB treatment as well as antenatal care. Based in Ward 25, the clinic is estimated to serve more than 20,000 households. Amid complaints about long waiting times and overcrowding, some have proposed that clinic should operate 24 hours a day.
Patients begin queuing at the clinic at 4:30 am in order to be seen before the clinic closes at 4pm, according to a clinic security guard who wished to remain anonymous. He added that the clinic is quiet on the weekends when patients are directed to go about 4 kms* away to the 24-hour Soshanguve Clinic 3.
“Paying R300 for transport to Soshanguve Clinic 3 to get primary health care is not on,” said resident Roda Msomi. “We struggle during the nigh and on weekends.”
“No one is responding to the concerns we submit to the message box at the clinic,” she told OurHealth.
Themba Ngidi sits on the local civic committee and alleges that a staff shortage at the clinic contributes to long waits and crowded conditions at the health facility.
A community meeting regarding the matter is expected to take place in November.
Local ward 25 councillor Phumzile Hlatswayo had not responded to OurHealth queries at the time of going to print.
*This story was amended on 23 October. The original story incorrectly said that the distance between the two clinics was 40 kms. We regret the error
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1. The distance from Boikhutsong Clinic to Soshanguve CHC (Clinic 3) can never be 40km. It is actually 6km.
2. Plans to build a Community Day Centre to address the demands & needs of ward 25 are underway. It is not like nothing is happening.