Mobile clinic to the rescue
RIVERSIDE VIEW – Residents in Ward 96 and surrounds now have a mobile clinic that visits the area in order to provide health services to the community.
Accessing healthcare will be a little easier for residents of Ward 96 and surrounds now that the City of Johannesburg has introduced the first of 10 mobile clinics to serve less-fortunate communities.
On 1 October, the Fourways Review accompanied Sbusiso Mthembu, the councillor for Ward 96, as he visited the clinic which had travelled to Riverside View near Riversands to serve residents in the area. The City decided to role out the clinics in areas where residents and communities have historically been excluded from the healthcare system and have no public clinics nearby. Nine more mobile clinics are set to be introduced in other far-reaching areas of Johannesburg in the coming months.
“This ward is a vast ward,” Mthembu said. “And a lot of communities don’t have access to health and other facilities that they need, such as schools, shopping centres or clinics, and getting transport can sometimes be difficult.
“Until we can get these facilities [into the areas] this is a great initiative.”
While at the place where the clinic had parked, Mthembu had his weight and height measured to work out his body mass index, had his blood pressure taken, his blood sugar levels measured and even underwent HIV testing and counselling in a separate tent set up next to the clinic for privacy.
Siyanda Makhubo, the stakeholder manager in the office of the MMC for Health and Social Development explained, “Patients will be able to access attention for various ailments and non-communicable diseases, as well as HIV testing and counselling, TB screening and treatment, pap smears, prostate cancer screening, and even antenatal screening [at the mobile clinics].
“[We will] employ a referral system between this facility and nearby clinics. For example, the staff may refer patients to the visiting doctor at Midrand West Clinic or Alphen Square.”
Makhubo added that each mobile clinic is run by a staff of nine people including nurses, an assistant, an admin assistant and a driver. The clinic travels to the Malaji informal settlement in Lanseria on Mondays and Tuesdays, the Drammond informal settlement on Wednesdays, the Northern Farm area on Thursdays and Fridays and the Riverside View area (near the flat complexes) Monday through Friday.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve done here, I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved. Knowing residents have access to this is wonderful,” Mthembu concluded.
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