Patients queue all day at the Buite Street Clinic to be sent home at 16:30

POLOKWANE – Even though the Buite Street Clinic closes at 16:30, all patients who are inside the building at that time must be helped.

This was according to health spokesperson, Macks Lesufi, who added that all other patients who were on the premises after 16:30 were advised to go to the Rethabile Clinic, which is a 24-hour clinic.

This followed after Review received complaints from patients who had to pick up their chronic medication at the clinic, expectant mothers who went there for their regular check-ups and mothers who took their babies for vaccinations.

The complainants said they had to wait all day at the clinic, and sometimes they were still not helped by the time the clinic closed, and they had to return the next day.

“The clinic personnel do not care whether you waited all day to be helped or not; as soon as it is 16:30 they close up and get ready to leave. We are then told to come back early the next morning to be first in line in order to be helped.

“When you go to the clinic you must prepare yourself. You could be there the whole day. Make sure you pack a lunch. Young and old wait in a long queue, and even mothers with their babies sit in this queue.

“Sometimes the mothers leave, because the children cry and are grumpy because of the wait. We have to queue outside because the clinic personnel only allow a few people into the building at a time,” patients said.

Lesufi confirmed that patients queued outside.

“There is not enough space inside the building and patients are temporarily accommodated out-side in the shade, but still on the premises. The wait can also be attributed to the fact that we provide access to healthcare services to more people than ever before.”

He added that the clinic was understaffed despite all efforts to recruit and retain skilled staff, and that this was because of competition in the private sector, personnel retiring and other causes.

“Most of our facilities are overpopulated due to the fact that it is the individual’s choice where he or she wants to be treated. The department of health has a plan to increase a number of primary healthcare facilities in Polokwane, which will ease the burden on facilities that serve more patients than others, such as the Rethabile and Buite Street clinics, and the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital.

“The other plan is to increase the operational hours of the existing facilities in the province,” Lesufi said.

Buite Street Clinic is an eight-hour facility and is open from 07:30 until 16:30.