Health MEC highlights lack of planning at Buite Clinic

POLOKWANE = “Unbearably long queues” at Buite Clinic in Polokwane proved to be the result of a lack of proper planning and communication from staff.

This is according to Health MEC, Dr Phophi Ramathuba when she visited the facility last Monday to monitor healthcare effectiveness after patients complained earlier that the facility does not have proper bags in which to dispense medicine.

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On the day of the visit, a box with paper bags was presented which had seemingly arrived a few days earlier.

Ramathuba also said the staff at the small-sized facility, which is flooded with patients as a result of its strategic location in-between Seshego, the city, Nirvana and Westenburg, do not strategise well by dividing patients according to their ailments.

Those in need of urgent medical attention, she said, sat with those in need of only quick care such as HIV tests and chronic medication, along with those who had probable contagious ailments such as a cough.

Ramathuba spoke with patients to get a better idea of how the clinic was operating.

“No one should leave without receiving the expected attention they came here for, due to queues. The important thing is to strategise. It is unfair that a patient who came here at 08:00 yesterday and had to leave late in the afternoon without having been assisted, had to come here again today and still face a queue.”

The MEC has been running a series of unexpected visits across provincial healthcare facilities, to monitor the effectiveness of services and offer the necessary support.

“The visits are effective because the department notes the challenges and comes up with working solutions. The visits also keep staff on their toes because they don’t know when their turn may come and they could be found not rendering expected services,” she added.