Zandspruit clinic, north of Johannesburg, operates weekdays from 07:00-19:00. But if you get there after 9am, you will be sent away. This is according to community members who say nurses and security guards have been telling patients who arrive at this time that the clinic is full. 

Mkhululi Nongoma, 40, experienced this first hand when he went to the clinic this week. Nongoma tells Health-e News that he arrived at the facility around 9am, only to be turned away. 

“As soon as I arrived at the clinic, there was a nurse at the gate and the security guards who said I must go back home because the clinic is full.” 

He says they didn’t even inquire about the reason for his visit.

“I wish they asked me or at least checked if I am fit enough to go back home, before they said I must go back home.”

More than 30,000 Zandspruit community members rely on this clinic. 

Not a new occurrence 

A 40-year-old woman who asked not to be named says she lost her baby in 2020 after being turned away from the clinic. 

She says she went to the clinic around 10am because of severe abdominal pain. But when she arrived at the clinic, she was told to go back home because the clinic was already full. 

She says that she tried to explain to the nurse that she was three months pregnant, but her pleas went unheard. Despite being in pain, she eventually decided to go back home as instructed by the nurse.

“Because I was in pain, I decided to go home and sleep and I didn’t have money to go to another clinic or even worse go consult at a private clinic,” she explains.

Three days later things got worse. “I woke up feeling this extreme pain, and my bed was full of blood. That immediately shocked me.” 

At around seven o’clock that morning she went back to the same clinic and was told to go to the hospital, as that matter was beyond the nurses’ control. The women went home and called an ambulance. She was admitted to the hospital 

As instructed by the nurse and how she saw that her situation was getting worse, she then decided to go to call an ambulance which took her to Dr Yusuf Dadoo hospital. She was admitted for three days and found out that she had had a miscarried. 

“Even if I get sick, I will never go back to that clinic,” she says. 

One of the workers who cleans the clinic grounds and the surrounding outside areas says she also had an unpleasant experience at the clinic. 

“I have also had a similar experience where I took my daughter to the clinic and I was told that the clinic is closed. This was surprising because it was around 2pm. But I was told that it is closed and I must stop asking questions.” 

Frustrated by being repeatedly turned away and the lack of attention, other residents have resorted to going 14 kms away to the Randburg clinic instead.

The Gauteng Department of Health has not responded to queries about patients being turned away from the clinic. – Health-e News