WATCH: Clinic was not void of staff when video was taken

A video circulated on social media recently showed the Ramaphosa Clinic seemingly void of staff to tend to patients.

The spokesperson for the City of Ekurhuleni, Zweli Dlamini, said the complainant who took the video arrived at the clinic at 13:30 and they assisted her.

“After asking to see a clinician, they placed her in the acute consulting room queue. There were only six patients in the queue.

Since there were two clinicians allocated to the room, one of them went to help at the Maternal, Children and Women’s Health section, which was much busier,” he explained.

It was apparent after informing those in the queue that she was going to another section that a patient became angry and started taking videos on her cellphone, threatening to post them on social media.
The staff did not stop her, Dlamini said.

“There are 12 consulting rooms and only seven clinicians at the clinic. Only five clinicians were on duty on the day. The consulting rooms the complainant opened and made a video of are always vacant,” he said.

Dlamini added the clinic has a vacancy for a professional nurse.

According to Dlamini, community leaders visited the clinic after seeing the video to find out what led to the incident.

“The staff provided the same explanation to them and they promised to locate the complainant so that they could settle amicably the issue,” he said.

According to the chairperson of the Ramaphosa Community Platform, Paul Thomas, the service delivery issues at the clinic have been going on for a long time.

“The clinic is short-staffed. There are long delays for patients – they arrive early and are only helped much later.
There are also allegations that all the nurses leave together for lunch, leaving the patients stranded,” said Thomas.

“The other issue is the cleaning schedule. Cleaners start work when the clinic opens and move around sick patients to do their duties. This is not acceptable,” he said.

Also Read:New clinic officially opens in Ramaphosa

Also Read: New pedestrians bridge built in Ramaphosa