I am highly disgusted with the level of service not only in South Africa but also by our government service providers.
On May 5 my parents needed to attend the Alberton North Clinic to obtain their chronic medication and have their quarterly check-up. They had to have their blood pressure checked and blood drawn.
My parents are no longer youngsters, my father is 76 years old and is wheelchair-bound, while my mother is 67 years old.
They were given dates to attend the clinic on May 5. They were at the clinic at 7.50am on that day, waiting in the queue to see the doctors. They only got to see the doctors after 4pm. At 4pm, the sister came out to tell the rest of the patients the cut-off time was 4pm.
My complaint is that surely if the sisters are doing their rounds outside checking the cards so they can pull the patients’ files they could surely see this elderly person is in a wheelchair and should be given first preference to the other patients? I understand that now we are dealing with this pandemic and they can only allow a certain number of patients in at a time, but surely an elderly person in a wheelchair should take preference.
It was with luck that the matron had come out when she heard a commotion outside and had seen my father that she had let him in so that both he and my mother could get their chronic medication as it was already close to 4pm. To this matron, thank you for doing what you did.
As to the rest of the staff at the Alberton North Clinic, you are rude and disrespectful. You chose this job as a profession and you were not forced to do this job. If you cannot treat elderly people with respect and dignity and speak to them decently, I suggest you find another profession as there are plenty of people out there looking for jobs. I am sure they would do a much better job than what you are doing at this moment.
Could something be done about the atrocious service and manners of the staff at the Alberton North Clinic? I am highly disgusted with their treatment of human beings.
Mrs N Lombardo
City of Ekurhuleni’s response issued by spokesperson Zweli Dlamini:
There is a Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) at the Alberton North Clinic on the prioritisation of the frail and the elderly; frail and the elderly must be consulted urgently.
The chief professional nurse was therefore instructed to utilise the security personnel for queue management in the absence of the field worker to prevent future occurrences. The fieldworker was instructed to update clients periodically during the day on the causes of delays in different queues.
Training will be scheduled to in-service staff members, including the security personnel, on the SOP on the prioritisation of the frail and the elderly. Client files will be pre-retrieved 72 hours prior to their appointment date in line with the norms and standards of Integrated Clinical Service Management (ICSM).
Training on the batho pele principle on frontline staff will be scheduled to prevent future recurrence. Monitoring of the clinic on the implementation of infection-prevention control measures and Covid-19 protocols will be conducted.
