Tshwane mayor pleased with healthcare services in Atteridgeville

Tshwane Executive Mayor Solly Msimanga on Thursday morning promised to give attention to all the challenges faced by Atteridgeville Clinic, in the west of Pretoria, to help improve service delivery at this clinic.

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Residents visiting the clinic this morning were pleasantly surprised when Msimanga, accompanied by MMC for health Sakkie Du Plooy, walked in, spoke to them and picked up the babies.

The mayoral pair were there to conduct an oversight visit to the clinic, inspecting the quality of healthcare. This clinic caters to residents of Atteridgeville and surrounding areas.

“I am pleased at the level of service provided by this Tshwane-based facility despite the odds they face. I mean, the personnel at this facility are working tirelessly to ensure that people are getting access to basic and decent healthcare despite the challenges they face with respect to the volume of patients they see and the resources they have at their disposal.

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“This sentiment was also shared by the community members waiting patiently to be seen by the medical professionals,” Msimanga said.

Msimanga engaged with community members, picking up children and asking about their well-being. He also spoke to health professionals, who pointed out several challenges they were facing on a daily basis.

“This facility deals with a whole host of emergent cases in addition to seeing patients with chronic ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes, TB and HIV/Aids. This facility also services the prenatal, postnatal and paediatric needs of some of the members of this community,” Msimanga said.

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He thanked the personnel and the management at the clinic for the remarkable work they were doing despite the odds they faced.

He said he had committed to address the challenges faced by the staff so that they may take their work to the next level and see more patients.

“This will, in turn, ensure that the people of Tshwane have better access to decent, basic healthcare in our efforts to build a more caring Tshwane for those who live in it,” Msimanga remarked.

He said the 2030 universal access to health services would be achieved through, among other solutions, developing healthcare capacity based on the services that are rendered by the City; partnering with communities to develop community-based healthcare services and actively engaging citizens towards the reduction of HIV prevalence and expansion of services towards addressing both management of HIV/Aids and prevention.

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To this end, the City has completed the upgrading and construction of Zithobeni and Block JJ Clinics. The two clinic infrastructures belong to the City.

The mayor said they were, however, making them available for the Gauteng health department to manage and operate them through an existing Service Level Agreement, and these clinics would be fully functional in due course.