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'clinic does not help us'

THE LONG WAIT: Zandspruit residents claims that the local clinic is small, stuffy and always full of patients who do not get much help. 20/01/2009. Pic. Antonio Muchave. © Sowetan.
THE LONG WAIT: Zandspruit residents claims that the local clinic is small, stuffy and always full of patients who do not get much help. 20/01/2009. Pic. Antonio Muchave. © Sowetan.

Katlego Moeng

Katlego Moeng

The residents of Zandspruit informal settlement on the West Rand are the latest community to demand better service delivery.

On Monday they protested outside the only amenity in the area - the local clinic - to back their demands.

The small, stuffy clinic was overflowing with patients, with only one general worker in attendance.

Sowetan established that apart from two student nurses the clinic had only two permanent nurses and one doctor. The doctor, according to patients, comes once or twice a week. By 11.30am more than 30 patients claimed that they had been waiting to be attended for more than three hours. The clinic normally opens at 8am.

The nurses refused to talk to Sowetan and referred all queries to regional manager Stella Uys, who refused to comment except to say: "We are doing our best under the circumstances."

The doctor left the clinic just after noon but promised to return later.

Sowetan spoke to some of the patients who were still waiting to be helped.

Nthabiseng Mbhala, who decided to reserve her place in the queue by leaving someone in her spot, left with her daughter to get some food .

She said: "This clinic does not help us. There are not enough doctors and sometimes the nurses cannot help. I'm still very far in the queue despite arriving here just after 8am," she said.

Armando Sithole, 21, who was suffering from severe stomach ache, said: "I excrete blood when I go to the toilet."

Morethabele Malapane, who also said she had been at the clinic since 8am, said: "I am still waiting to see the doctor."

Her husband Motebang said his friends had discouraged him from taking his wife to the clinic, saying he was wasting his time. It is clear that many people in the township have given up on the clinic.

Mama Masheza, who sat with her baby at a spaza shop, said: "We do not go to that clinic anymore because we do not get help."

Attempts to get comment from Phumelele Kaunda, Gauteng health spokesperson, were unsuccessful yesterday.

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