RESIDENTS of Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, might have to wait up to three years for a better and improved primary healthcare system.

The City of Johannesburg responded to Sowetan's report, published last week, about the lack of a quality service and severe understaffing at Diepsloot South Clinic, where eight nurses each see up to 40 patients every day.

Nurses claimed they battled to get medicines, which often resulted in patients being turned away.

A second clinic is about two kilometres away, while the nearest hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital, is about 40km away.

But City of Johannesburg spokesman Nkosinathi Nkabinde said construction of a 24-hour community health centre had been dragging for years.

"The need for a 24-hour community health centre has been raised for several years in the IDP [Integrated Development Plan] processes.

"As an interim measure a park home with two consulting rooms was hired to create more space for additional services," Nkabinde said.

He acknowledged challenges at the clinic and said the council was planning to build a new health centre in the area within three years.

"Notwithstanding the many challenges faced on a daily basis, the City of Johannesburg's health department is confident that it is taking reasonable measures within its available resources to improve the quality of healthcare of our people and will endeavour to progressively improve service delivery," Nkabinde said.

"The question of one nurse to 40 patients a day will improve when more staff, especially clinically trained nurses, are employed as part of the ongoing recruitment of professional nurses by the city council."

Regarding the supply of medicines, Nkabinde said their December-January records showed that the medicines supplied were sufficient.

The clinic was built in 2002 by the Alexandra Urban Renewal Project and the provincial health department was only consulted later. - sifilel@sowetan.co.za