Khanyisile Ndlanzi says she was booked to have her tooth extracted on September 19.
“I am angry at the treatment patients are receiving at the clinic. Instead of extracting my tooth, my gum was torn while they were pulling it. The nurses are rude, they come to work late and patients, including the elderly, wait outside in the sun,” she said.
She added that she had arrived early in the morning, and was second in the queue, but she was only helped at 11.45am.
“You are asked to be at the clinic by 8am for a tooth extraction, but they only start working at 11am,” said Ndlanzi.
Another patient angrily said, “Saba izinto zamahala, Be afraid of free things.”
Ndlanzi further said that at Isangweni clinic, they don’t take referral letters. “I will never set foot in that clinic again,” she said.
The spokesperson of the Department of Health in Gauteng, Simon Zwane, said nurses are not allowed to extract teeth at clinics because they have their own dentist.
“You have to talk to the clinic manager,” he said. When contacted about the allegations, the district manager, Mongezo Mekgwe, says she has not heard about the complaint, but that she will investigate the matter.
