50-year-old patient allegedly assaulted by police at clinic

A Davidsonville resident, 50-year-old Sean Daniels, has opened a case of assault against five policemen and two security reaction officers, after they allegedly assaulted him at Davidsonville Clinic.

The incident took place on Wednesday 14 September but according to Daniels the relationship started going sour a year and a half ago. “I could not afford to buy my own hypertension medication any more and was forced to go to the clinic. After consultation they prescribed generic medication, which caused my blood pressure to be higher than normal. As I had no other choice I accepted it and had to fetch my medication every three months, in between my appointments. As I also take my baby to the clinic, I started to witness that the work ethics of the staff of this clinic is undesirable and that they treated their patients with contempt and without any dignity,” said Daniels. He decided to raise the issue with the staff and management, but this allegedly offended them to such a degree that they became hostile towards him and regular verbal altercations occurred.

“As chronic patients we have to make sure we are at the clinic as early as 5am to be helped, just to see them sauntering in after 7.30am when they are already supposed to be busy consulting. On top of that they first sweep the clinic and then go for coffee. They will start to hand out files after 8.30am. Often you leave there at 4pm and without your medication.

When you speak up they get offended and tell you to go and report them because they don’t care and they are not scared of anyone,” explained Daniels.

“A month ago we really had a big argument over medication. We had to wait the whole day, knowing they were too lazy to unpack the new stock. Some had already told us there was stock but the nurses didn’t want to unpack it because they were looking at each other to see who would take the initiative. When I spoke out and insisted they unpack the stock and provide us with our medication, the operations manager threatened to phone the police. She insisted that we return the next day,” said Daniels. Due to one of his children’s school commitments he could not make it on 13 September and returned on 14 September at about 2pm.

“When I arrived at the clinic all the staff were nowhere to be seen. I had to find the clerk myself. When I did find her, she could not find my file.

I was then informed that the operations manager had removed and confiscated my file because I was banned from the premises,” said Daniels.

An upset Daniels told them they had no right and that he had a right to medical treatment. When another fiery argument ensued, the operations manager called the Roodepoort Police and the security company, which sent two reaction officers to the clinic.

“They all approached me but I refused to leave the clinic without my medication. She then agreed to take my blood pressure, which was dangerously high, but that still did not convince her to give me my medication.

“Five policemen and the two reaction officers then forcefully removed me from the building. I tried explaining to the police, but they did not care about my situation and started to rough-handle me. I showed resistance and that was when they got angry. The security officers started to hit me and finally managed to handcuff me,” said Daniels who also suffers from osteoarthritis.

“Due to being handcuffed I could not balance myself. When they threw me to the ground I landed head first on the gravel. I also suffered other injuries from this [which Daniels showed to the Record]. They also threw me into the van without my being able to use my hands to break the fall. Afterwards the police explained to me that the reason for treating me like that was that although I am old, I made them look like fools when seven of them had trouble overpowering me,” concluded Daniels.

The police dropped him off at his house and Daniels subsequently opened a case of assault and police brutality at Roodepoort Police Station.

The Record is currently awaiting comment from the Department of Health and the police.

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