She also mentioned that the long wait is difficult for people who take an hour off work to quickly go to the clinic.
The City of Johannesburg’s spokesperson, Nkosinathi Nkabinde pointed out that there is only one professional nurse to see many clinic visitors who come in for immunisation.
He said the clinic opens from 7.30am to 4pm, although patients tend to queue earlier outside the clinic. Nkabinde explained that the health facility only has four professional nurses, including the nurse who performs the immunisations.
He added, “On Fridays, because of the high workload of antenatal care follow-up cases, the same [nurse] has to assist another professional nurse who first visits antenatal care. The enrolled nurse for TB then sees immunisation patients, after seeing TB patients.”
The remaining two professional nurses are responsible for curative, antiretroviral treatment and chronic services, including emergencies. To ease space constraints, the clinic will receive a permanent structure before the end of February as the facility currently has only four consultation rooms.
In 2013 complaints about Midrand West Clinic were also addressed with the explanation that there was a shortage of staff.
Read Midrand Clinic frustrates residents
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